Naruto Meets Us
by menmaaddict
Summary: A collaboration story with the. nureta. mofu about how, well, Naruto Meets Us. Just read it. It's amazing. WARNINGS gangs/fighting, language, OC shipping, OC characters, insanity/mental breakdowns, sappiness (SAP), POV switching like crazy, nureta mofu-ness. But other than that you've got nothing to worry about. Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

**A cloning experiment gone wrong causes all of the people in the Konoha area to develop Edo-characters – doubles of themselves with the opposite personalities of them. The daughters of the scientists who caused this epidemic, Keta and Kurin, and their counterparts become the leaders their deceased parent's of a notorious gang – Saiken – dedicated to protecting the dangerous secrets of their parent's labs. The two leaders of this gang transfer to Konoha High when something unfortunate occurs and their lives are changed forever by the people they meet there.**

**Disclaimer: ( I don't get why we need this. We obviously don't own it if we're sitting here writing FAN fictions about it.) Hey guys, it's Keta and Kurin. Just wanted to let you in on an unfortunate fact: We don't own Naruto. Don't worry tho, we're working on that. **

**Keta: This is our first fanfic we're submitting. It is a joint effort produced by none other than the ruler of the dark side of hell, Keta and her friend Kurin, ruler of the lighter goody two-shoes side. **

**Kurin: Oh hell naw. I ain't even gonna touch that. **

**Keta: Why? Because you know you've just been burned?**

**Kurin: No, because we're getting the FUCK off topic. People, please keep reading, it gets amazing. ENJOY!**

**Keta: Sorry, I need the last word. Enjoy.**

**Kurin: -_- …. **

**Keta: Here we go!**

_They were running through the dark hallway squealing and jumping around like only two eight year old girls could, and laughed when they heard thunder strike outside. _

"_You're slow, Kurin!" yelled the dark haired girl, who threw another knife at her playmate's head. The other girl, Kurin, ducked long before the knife hit the wall and grabbed it, spinning around and throwing it right back. She missed, but just barely. _

"_If I'm slow, then you're slower, baka!" she smirked for a moment, impossibly spiky purple hair flopping even more in her face, before she caught the expression on her friend's face and started running again. Her pulse raced. _

_Sometimes Keta could be scary. Well, most of the time._

"_Say that to my face, see what happens!" Keta sprinted after her, laughing maniacally when she saw the pale girl struggle to escape through a large metal door. If she wasn't so distracted by their little game, she would have realized that this was not a door to be opened. By anyone, ever. Especially not two highly destructive eight year old girls armed with knives._

_The room was light, incredibly lit with the hum of florescent lights and the blinking bulbs of machines. The two girls continued to run, carelessly knocking over papers and glass tubes as they raced through the colorful and strange new place._

"_Oi! Get back here and say it to my face while you're still conscious!" Keta's dark eyes followed her friend as she ran, like a predator stalks its prey before the kill. She looked positively feral and Kurin, who knew better than anyone that Keta always made good on her threats, was scrambling away as fast as her scrawny legs could carry her. _

"_K-Keta! Eh … maybe w-we should play another game …" Kurin tried her hardest not to sound scared, but failed miserably when her soft voice cracked and dwindled at the end of her sentence. Well, that, and she stuttered pathetically._

"_Ha! Scared?" Keta scoffed. "Stop being such a boring human. Live! Then, DIE!" With a last crazy screech she jumped at Kurin and dug her nails into the skinny girl's arms, making her squeal nervously and stumble away._

"_Heh, calm down, Kurin, geez. The game is called Predator and Prey. It's not my fault you're always stuck being the prey. Grow a backbone, why don't you?" Keta released Kurin with a light shove. _

_Unfortunately, Keta hadn't seemed to realize how unsteady Kurin was on her feet at that moment, nor did she see the thin wire that Kurin was bound to trip over. The purple haired girl screamed loudly as she fell, grabbing hold of her friend's shirt and pulling her down with her onto the ground._

_The girls' eyes grew wide as they watched a huge machine behind them shudder and fall, causing the table in front of it to be knocked down. Glass shattered as test tubes crashed to the floor, spilling colorful fluids all over the room. Machines started whirring and groaning loudly, smoke flowing from the tops and sides. It was not a very encouraging sight. _

"_Oh … my …"_

_Red lights began flashing when one of the machines caught fire. _

"_We're dead."_

_Kurin scrambled to her feet, hearing yelling coming from behind a window. She craned her neck to see people inside, panicking, frantic. The people looked strange. Their faces were splotchy and distorted, blurring out their features and making them unrecognizable. They weren't standing outside, but in another room. A big white room with more funny looking tables and tubes and machines. Kurin stared in shock as she watched the room catch fire, and the people become cloaked in bright dancing flames. They screamed frantically and ran, although it was already too late. They fell one by one to the ground, twitching and curling up into mounds of hot ash. _

_Kurin screamed._

_Her scream joined all the other screams, making a sickening symphony of terror echo across the two rooms._

"_KETA!" She cried, "K-Keta they … they're burning!" She staggered back, spinning around to look at her friend, but Keta was still lying on the ground where she left her, unmoving._

"_K-Keta?Keta?" She moved towards the figure sprawled out on the ground. Her feet were still tangled in the little wire, and her small tanned hands were still balled tightly into fists. That stupid wire. How could something so completely insignificant cause so much damage? Kurin scowled at it briefly before reaching a shaking hand out to her friend._

"_Keta …" Kurin froze. Her grey-blue eyes locked on the tiny trickle of red that had started pooling around Keta's head._

_Kurin's own head shook violently at the sight and she sprang back from the body of her friend. The dead ._

"_No," Kurin stumbled forward again and shook the girl's shoulder's, desperately trying to get her to move. To speak. To do anything other than lie there, laughing at her silently. "No, no, no, no n-no, no nonononononononononooooo," _

"_Keta!" she screamed, "Please! Please wake up! Don't be dead! Please! You're just joking, right? Just- just joking? Keta? I'm scared, Keta. Don't go … Don't die …"_

_Keta did not respond._

_Kurin screamed again. _

_She screamed and cried and pounded her head against the cold ground and screamed some more._

_Because she had been the one who tripped. She had pulled Keta down with her. _

_And now everyone was dead._

Kurin shot up from her bed, clutching at her face and hair frantically. A few seconds later she dropped her hands and fisted her sheets with a scowl, waiting for her pulse to slow. Her eyes closed slowly, and her shoulders relaxed, slumping against the bed frame in defeat.

"Damn," he shook her head.

_Pathetic._

After waiting a moment or two to calm her fraying nerves, she threw her covers off and silently made her way to the door. She wouldn't want any of her psychotic roommates waking up to yell about her making noise. Especially not Keta. No, that wouldn't be good, especially not after the disturbing dream she'd just had about her dying. The stupid re-occurring nightmare she had been having for weeks. It was always the same, she would be fighting with Keta and she would trip and set some weird room on fire. Then Keta would sometimes die or pass out or yell and Kurin would just stand there and scream like a baby. Every. Damn. Time.

And then she would wake up like this, angry at her stupid subconscious and it's stupid inability to let her have a peaceful night's sleep.

Kurin shook her head again, dismissing her spiteful thoughts and moved into the dark quiet hallway. She was especially careful when she passed Keta's room, right across from her own. If she found Kurin awake again, she would not be pleased. Last time it had happened they started a screaming match downstairs and woke everyone else up at one o'clock in the morning.

Chiku had not been pleased either.

Kurin lived in her parent's and Keta's parent's manor up on top of their town Konoha's famous Hokage mountain. The faces of Konoha's founders were carved into the surface of the mountain, which separated Konoha from the next town over, Suna. The two friends (more like enemies) had been given their families' shared estate after their deaths nine years ago in The Accident. That's what they all called it now, The Accident. No one ever had to explain which accident they were referring to when they talked about it, if anyone ever did. Everyone knew. It was the most fantastically tragic thing that had ever occurred in their quiet little town, and it had been caused, of course, by none other than the two girl's parents.

Confused?

You should be. Hardly any of The Accident makes much sense at all, and yet, somehow it does.

You see, Kurin and Keta's parents had been scientists. Very well-known and brilliant scientists who had been working at the one thing humankind had been trying and failing to do for the past half century: cloning. More specifically, cloning people without having to hurt them or preform immoral experiments on them. This was a lot easier said than done, of course, but somehow their parents had managed to pull it off., with a little help from some other important people. Minato and Kushina Uzumaki were not only brilliant scientists, but they were also members of the town board. They convinced the members of the board to help raise money to fund their experiments, and were producing fantastic results … well, right up until everything went wrong and blew up in everyone's faces. Literally. There was an explosion in their parent's lab wiping out everyone on the research team, including the infamous Uzumaki's, and destroying millions of dollars' worth of scientific research and equipment.

And that was just the tip of the iceberg.

At the time of the explosion they had been in the middle of a very important and extremely dangerous experiment. An experiment that ended up cloning every single person in Konoha at that time.

Now, before you freak out, let me explain: They had succeeded on creating the perfect way to clone human beings. It was quick, painless, and a fairly simplistic process. Not to mention how much cheaper it was compared to conventional methods of growing a clone … However. There was one catch:

A person could only be cloned once, and the process didn't always produce a completely identical clone. Actually, even when it did produce an identical clone the personalities were never the same. The clones ended up being almost always totally the opposite personality of whoever the original was.

Everyone in Konoha was cloned during the explosion only once, and when the blasting was finally over, everyone woke up next to a near perfect copy of themselves. As you can imagine, the aftermath was insanity. Everyone wanted to know what happened, where these strange clones came from, how they got there, what caused the explosion and why. So many questions, so little time. And all the clones had no idea what was going on either. They showed up out of seemingly nowhere somehow knowing perfect English, the same ages as the people they were cloned after, and they had questions too. Because though they understood general ideas, like what a car was and what a person was, they had no real memories and didn't know who they were or where they came from.

So basically everyone was demanding an explanation for something that had almost no real explanation. The Accident was just that, an accident. It wasn't replicable or easy to comprehend, and it certainly couldn't be undone. The only way to get rid of a clone would be to kill it, which was declared illegal only a few weeks after The Accident occurred. Because as strange as it was, most people didn't hate them. It was hard to truly hate yourself, and that's really what they were; distorted versions of people who already existed.

People did freak out about it of course, but eventually got used to the idea. It was all over the media for a while, stories of the world coming to an end and clones taking over Earth, all sorts of crazy misleading reports. In the end though, everyone got it all sorted out and now, nine long years later, it was considered a normal thing. Everyone in Konoha had an Edo. That's what they called the clones - Edos. And when they named the clones, to avoid confusion, instead of renaming them all they gave them their counterpart's name with the Edo tacked onto the front, which was really the simplest way to organize them all. The Edos became the responsibility of whoever the original was and their families. They were all inducted into the town and given jobs, given lives. They typically lived with their alternate unless something kept them apart. It was actually considered strange not to live with your Edo, or not to have one at all. Even babies born in Konoha of the people who had been cloned or their Edos had Edos. It hadn't spread anywhere else, really, but became sort of a genetic mutation in the people living in Konoha. Something that was still considered strange in other parts of the world, but was, albeit begrudgingly accepted by society.

That's why Chiku and Oto lived with Kurin and Keta. Chiku was Kurin's Edo and Oto was Keta's. Chiku lived up to the Edo standard of being completely opposite of Kurin in almost every way. While Kurin was loud, Chiku was always silent. Kurin was clumsy, Chiku was always steady and perfect. Kurin was obnoxious, and Chiku oozed charm. Yes, are you seeing a pattern? Chiku had developed all of the positive traits Kurin sadly lacked. And Oto … well, Oto was a special case. He was the only known Edo in the entire town who was the opposite gender of his original, and although he was different from Keta, they weren't always so completely against each other the way Kurin and Chiku were.

Kurin frowned.

She had made her way downstairs and into the training room where she immediately headed straight for Keta's shiny new punching bag. She needed to clear her head, and this was the place to go for that. When she was deep in thought about her past, or was lost in her thoughts about life, she went downstairs to train. It helped her think, the repetitive strain of her muscles as she moved.

She positioned herself as steadily as she could in front of the bag and began jabbing it furiously with her fists without warming up or even bandaging her hands first. She didn't have time for any of that. She needed this, she needed it now. She needed to get the image of Keta's still and bloody body out of her mind before she made herself sick.

Absently, Kurin wondered what Chiku would say if she told her about these dreams. She had mentioned it once or twice, casually, but hadn't really gotten much of a response. Not that she expected much. To her, talking to Chiku was like talking to a mirror. Like she was talking to herself and not getting an answer. Chiku looked exactly like her. Well, actually Chiku didn't look exactly like Kurin. There were some subtle differences. Although they had the same face and pale skin, Chiku had straighter, darker hair than Kurin. It was such a dark shade of purple it looked black unless you saw it in the sun, although the biggest and most obvious difference between the two would have to be their eyes. Kurin's eyes were a simple dull blue while Chiku had one brilliant golden eye, and one emerald green eye. Heterochromia. Chiku had two different colored eyes. She hated it of course, said it made her look like some weird mutant cat, but Kurin and pretty much everyone else they met thought it was amazing. If they ever found out, of course. Chiku had copied Kurin's signature cover-half-of-your-face-with-your-hair style and hid her gold eye as much as possible.

Kurin rolled her eyes and blew her hair up out of her face, aiming another violent punch at the bag, making the ceiling shudder with the weight of the bag's chain. She winced for a moment, waiting for the shaking to stop before continuing.

Crap.

Now someone was definitely going to come downstairs.

She didn't stop punching though.

"Oi, what are you doing at 3 in the morning?" Kurin tensed and turned to see her black haired friend leaning in the door frame with the usual smirk on her face. Damn, she knew she'd be discovered.

"Oh, I just… couldn't sleep. Needed a distraction?" Although she meant it to be a statement it turned out like a question. Double damn. Kurin sighed when Keta's eyebrow arched. She knew Keta could see through her façade.

"Yeah and I'm going out with Oto. What's the real reason you're here? Don't tell me you're having those nightmares again." And there it goes. As usual Keta saw right through her. Cursing the nightmares in her head, Kurin decided she needed to distract Keta from asking any more questions.

"Hey, since you're already up are you going to spar with me or are you gonna just stand there and talk? Don't tell me you're scared?" Please take the bait.

"Me? Scared of you? Man, you are hilarious. If you wanna spar I don't see why not." Kurin's plan to coerce Keta into action worked. She didn't know if that was a good or bad thing.

"But I hope you realize you're going to have to tell me about those nightmares sooner or later. Fighting won't solve your problems. Talking is needed to get over the-"

She was cut off by Kurin trying to land the first punch. Grabbing her fist she chuckled, "Well, if you don't want to talk, whatever. We'll talk with our fists." Throwing her fist back Keta punched the purple headed girl back into the depths of the training room.

"Well that's a language I can understand." Kurin replied with a smirk.

Kurin scrambled to her feet as Keta lunged for her. She managed to dodge her at the last second and aimed a kick to the other girl's stomach that was, of course, dodged as well.

They were both experts on Taijutsu, having been trained in hand to hand combat since the day they could walk. Even before their parents' death's they had always fought. And it didn't end there. They were trained in using any type of weapon you could imagine, guns, knives, swords, you name it. They had the best combat training their deceased parents' fortune could afford.

Why?

That was another complicated thing about the young girl's lives. Long before they were even born people had been after their parents' research. Namely, the people who belonged to two organizations: The Akatsuki and the Sound, otherwise known as the two most notorious gangs in Konoha's history. Well, almost as notorious as one other gang:

Saiken.

A gang that had been founded by six people in order to keep Akatsuki and Sound away from their parents' precious research. But who would want to protect their parents' work desperately enough to start a gang?

Who else other than their parents, along with the infamous Uzumaki's?

Yes, being in a gang might not be something you'd typically imagine six scientists teaming up to start, but it was the best thing they could do. Konoha's police force, run by the esteemed Uchiha clan just couldn't fight Akasuki and Sound on equal ground without breaking the law. They needed an inside group, another gang that was willing to fight against them without harming the general public.

So their parents obliged.

And now, even all these years after their parent's death, the two gangs were still after the keys to their parent's abandoned lab, hoping to get their grubby hands on information to take over Konoha with.

And the two girls, being the only living relatives of the original six with any training and idea of how to protect themselves, became the official leaders of Saiken at the age of thirteen. Chiku and Oto were members also, of course, and trained with them every day. They were probably some of the youngest gang leaders in history. They had around forty men and women scattered around the city, ready for them to say the word and call an attack at any moment. It was a difficult job, and they took it very seriously. There was no one better at taking out Akatsuki and Sound scum than the two of them.

Kurin was shaken out of her thoughts abruptly when Keta swung her fist forward and made contact with the right side of her face.

"Wake up, Kurin, where's your head?" Keta said, aiming another punch to Kurin's gut.

"Apparently my head is busy being hit by your fist," Kurin said, sweeping her feet around to trip Keta and make her trip before her violent hit could make contact. She fell on top of her friend with a heavy grunt before Kurin flipped them over so that she was pinning Keta down. "But not for long."

Keta smirked from below, happy to have gotten her friend's attention once again. "That's more like it," she growled, and kneed Kurin roughly in the stomach so that she fell to the side with a grunt of pain.

"I'm gonna get you for that," Kurin said, jumping quickly back to her feet.

Keta grinned wolfishly from where she crouched on the ground in front of her and said, "Bring it on."

The last thing heard before the open door to the training room closed in on itself was the grunts and laughter of the girls inside.

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

Hours later the girls finally emerged from the training room with visible cuts and bruises scattered on their bodies. Despite their injuries they were smiling and laughing as they steadily made their way to the kitchen. Smelling something wafting from the kitchen, the girls sped up their pace which soon turned into a run as they raced each other to the delicious aroma.

"I win!" Kurin exclaimed when they got to the kitchen, panting tiredly.

"You wish. My foot obviously got here before yours! Tell her Oto!" Keta bellowed, turning to her counterpart for backup.

"I wasn't really paying attention. You do realize I'm busy cooking for the bottomless pits you two call your stomachs." The dark haired young man, who hadn't looked up from the pot of ramen he was cooking, told the two.

"You two smell like you woke up, trained for hours, then decided to come and stink up the house." The dark purple haired girl said, more like stated. Keta grinned. Chiku happened to be - as Keta believed – Kurin's better half.

"As always, you're right on point Chiku. That is exactly what we've been doing." Kurin said, dragging her feet in order to reach the glass of milk Oto put on the table for her. Looking around, Kurin saw Keta collapse on the couch in front of their flat screen TV with a groan.

Oto was the only guy in the house, and liked to think of himself as Keta's older brother. He had very dark hair and deep hazel eyes that seemed to suffocate you if you looked into them too long. Keta looked just like Oto besides her eyes and hairstyle. Her eyes were deep black orbs that seemed to gaze into your soul and her unbelievably spiky black hair was streaked with blue and just never seemed to stay down. It literally defied gravity, I mean, how was that even possible? Even in water it just stayed up in the air. That was one thing that her and Kurin had in common, the impossibly stubborn spiky hair. Oto and Chiku's hair was more tame, always staying sleek against their heads.

"You two should go take a shower and get ready for your new school. It is your first day." Oto turned to give them his signature glare, "And when I say should I mean you better go and do it. You're stinking up the house." Moving back to the boiling pot he added, "Do it quick if you actually want to eat breakfast."

Though Oto was a guy he acted more like a mother. Always telling the girls what to do, when to do it, to clean up, eat everything on the plate, don't scatter your clothes on the floor, and everything in between. And as the role demanded, he was also extremely bossy. Not as bossy as Keta - thank Kami - but enough so that they actually listened to him. Keta was, or liked to think of herself as the boss of the house.

"Since when is ramen a breakfast food, Oto?" Keta's bored expression glanced down to look at her brother. "And why do we even have to go to this new school if we're just going to get kicked out again? Besides, what do we not know now that we need to learn in that stupid prison they call a school?" Throwing her head back into the sanctuary of the cushions, Keta sighed.

"We need to go because that's what normal teenagers do. Besides, we're not going to get kicked out this time because you and Kurin can't keep your cool. No one is going to be fighting there for no good reason. And I'm talking to you here Keta. If a guy looks at you in a certain way you don't need to punch him in the face and threaten to cut off his balls." He calmly told the girl. It was the fifth time in three days that she asked that question and gotten the same answer. "And ramen is a breakfast food when you sleep all day instead of going to get the groceries," He said sending a knowing smirk at her.

"Hey, I was tired. You really need to get someone else to do these troublesome chores. I don't see why you chose, out of everyone here, me to go and get groceries. When you saw the rain you really should've told Kurin or Chiku to do it. Rain makes me go to sleep. Of all people you know that, Oto. Your stupidity is what really caused the 'no groceries' crisis we are currently facing."

Reluctantly getting up, Keta slowly made her way out of the kitchen but paused in the doorway, "I guess I'll get them after we get out of pris-OW! What was that for?!" She howled angrily, sending a glare at the boy.

"Oops, seems the spoon slipped out of my grasp. I suggest you save your smart comments for the classroom." Not turning around from his task, he calmly continued to stir the contents while occasionally adding a spice here or there.

"Yeah, yeah, just make the food so we can get out of here. I'll be out in 10." Rubbing the sore spot on her head she walked out and towards the bathroom leaving the others to themselves. It was a peaceful silence until….

"Oto~ I'm so hungry. Can you hurry up with those noodles? Man, I'm dying here! You know ramen is my favorite, you can't just taunt me with the yummy ramen smells and not give me any." Kurin flopped into the spot her female companion had just vacated with a thump.

"You can't rush culinary art, Kurin. Maybe it would be faster if you got off your sorry butt and helped me. "

"Nah, I don't really feel like it. Besides, you never ask Chiku to help you. You always complain to us. What's the deal with that? You're so unfair Oto." Barely giving him a glance she continued to rant about everything and nothing at the same time. Soon her ranting caused a tick mark to form on Chiku's forehead. Oto sighed, waiting for her to lose it. Chiku was the calmest person you'd ever meet until Kurin showed up blabbering about something stupid. Those two were always at each other's throats.

"Kurin," Chiku's harsh tone quickly silenced Kurin's mini rant, and Kurin turned to look at her counterpart, humming in question.

"Would you kindly shut the fuck up before I cut off your arms and feed them to you for breakfast instead of Oto's ramen?"

Kurin scowled. "I'd like to see you try, asshole."

Chiku calmly got up out of her chair and began cracking her knuckles. "If you say so," she shrugged and started making her way towards Kurin, who jumped up and began running for the stairs like death himself was on her tail.

"Like I wanna fight you right after I just finished fighting with Keta," she lied smoothly, trying to cover up her fear. She doubted it worked very well, but it was worth a try. "I get it already, I'm leaving. Shutting up and leaving."

The two counterparts looked at each other and shook their heads in disappointment as they watched her go.

"I'm definitely going to need an aspirin by the end of the day," Chiku said, returning to her spot and stirring her coffee tiredly.

"You and me both, sister, you and me both. Man, this is going to be a very long day."

With a sigh, the two went back to whatever they were doing before the wreckless pair entered the room.

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

The halls of Konoha High were quiet. All the students were in their respective classes, no one roamed the halls, and there wasn't anything that could disturb the peace … until the terrible double duos emerged from the principal's office flanked by their siblings, arguing as usual.

"Ugh, because of you we're already late and it's only the first day. I told you to slow down but no, you just had to speed and get pulled over by the cops. You're lucky he was nice enough to let us off with a warning." Once again, the purple haired female was seen yelling her dark haired friend.

"You wanted to get to school and you were rushing me. Make up your mind. Do you want to be on time, or drive safe? Besides that's how I normally drive. If you don't like it then you should've driven yourself here."

"Like you'd have let me drive, miss I-get-to-do-everything-myself …" Kurin muttered under her breath, turning away and shoving her hands in her pockets.

Not even sparing the girl a glance, Keta continued on her trek to find their classroom. "I don't actually know where we're going and nobody seems to be in the hallway. I doubt they would want to be seen near people who looked like us anyways. We look like we're in a gang." She sent a knowing smirk at her companions who copied the look, then burst out laughing.

They truly did look like they were in a gang. Chiku was wearing a red Lolita dress with black frillings equipped with a hood that now covered her face so you couldn't tell what her facial expression was (not that she really ever had much of an expression on anyways). All you could see was her one green eye that could read anyone like a book. Her other shimmering gold eye was, as it was frequently kept, hidden behind her bangs. Wearing her knee length leather black boots covered in buckles and laces she looked completely unapproachable and dangerous. Which, she sort of was.

Oto was dressed in a pair of black footed jeans with a casual button down short sleeved dark blue shirt which said 'You Mad Bro?' on the front of it. He decided to cover it with a sleeveless black hoodie halfway zipped down.

And the terrible two were practically twinning - as usual - with their outfits. They wore short sleeved hoodies with dark clothing layered underneath. Kurin's hoodie was dark blue and she wore her grey ripped jeans and dark brown studded boots that looked like they were made for stomping. And when Kurin wore them, they were. Keta was wearing a black hoodie with a crimson shirt underneath. As always she had here hood up and covering her face. She wore black ripped jean shorts and black adidas with a skull print. Both had black liner ringed around their eyes and Kurin decided to go all out and wore dark eye shadow with the outfit. She said it was because she wanted to look good for her first day, but it was probably more of an attempt to hide the dark bruise-like circles that decorated below her tired eyes.

All in all, the group looked pretty terrifying,

After calming down from her laughing high Kurin decided to interject with a disbelieving tone, "What do you mean you don't know where we're going? Didn't your grandmother tell you when we were in the office?" Stopping to lean on the locker doors and send a questioning glance to Keta, Kurin waited for her answer.

"Tsunade-baachan probably did tell me. But it was after she hit me on the head for not visiting often enough so I wouldn't remember even if I tried to. Her fists hurt! I think I got brain damage from her fussing and whining. Didn't Chiku get that map from Shizune or something? Ask someone who knows." Keta mimicked Kurin's position on the opposite side of the wall.

"I do have a map to our classes. It seems we all have the same ones thanks to Tsunade. Thank your grandmother for me, would you Keta?" Chiku pulled out the map from her pocket and handed it to Oto.

"Oh, it looks like our class is the one we've been arguing in front of for like five minutes. You do realize they probably heard what we've said right?" He looked at the girls leaning on the wall.

"Whatever, let's just go inside and get this over with. I'm ready to go home already." Keta yawned before approaching her supposed older brother.

"Well, in you go," And with a shove she pushed Otonashi into the classroom doors.

All eyes were on them as soon as the group was inside the classroom. The silence soon became weird so with a cough Kurin walked up to the teacher.

"Oi, we're the new students. Can we go sit down or something? It's like we're animals at a zoo. It's a little uncomfortable, um… Mr. …" she trailed off awkwardly, not knowing the man's name.

"Iruka," the teacher supplied with a smile. "My name is Iruka and I will be your history and homeroom teacher this year. Please call me Iruka-sensei. You can go sit anywhere and we'll start the introductions."

Raising a hand Iruka-sensei motioned for them to head to the only vacant seats in the back row. Of course they would be all together. Heading the middle seat Keta plopped down and immediately laid her head down. Oto sat on the end seat on the left, Kurin sat on the right of Keta and Chiku sat on the end seat next to Kurin on the far right.

"Alright class," Iruka said, clapping his hands together. "Now that everyone has arrived, please introduce yourselves. A few likes and dislikes, and your hobbies. You may begin."

Everyone turned to look at the boy sitting in the first row nearest to the teacher's desk on the end.

When the brown haired boy saw that he was first he scowled and muttered to himself before straightening up and throwing the class a wide grin. He was a scruffy looking kid with dark brown hair and tan skin with two triangular red tattoos decorating his cheeks. When he smiled, he showed off a mouth full of sharp pearly whites that somehow reminded Kurin of a dog.

"Hey, I guess I'm gonna be first, so my name's Inuzuka Kiba. I love dogs-" Kurin smirked at that- "and hate cats. My hobby is whooping everyone else's ass at football, so I'm gonna be QB this year for sure!"

A few people snickered at his last statement and he pouted. "Just watch, assholes. Watch me score the winning touchdown."

"Yeah right, dog breath!"Laughed a loud boy sitting a few seats in front of Kurin to the right."In your doggy dreams. I'm QB and I'm gonna stay QB cause I'm the best."

Everyone laughed again, and Kiba flushed angrily. "Hey! Not true! I could run circles around you, Uzumaki!"

Kurin's heart stopped. Uzumaki? She turned to share a look with Keta before they both went back to looking at him, interested in the Uzumaki Legacy.

The blonde boy, Uzumaki, just chuckled and shook his head, turning so that Kurin and Keta could get a good look at him. "You have fun chasing circles your tail, dog breath, while I take us all the way to Championships."

Kiba shot out of his chair, furious with the other boy.

"Now, now, Kiba-kun, just calm down and sit back in your chair." Iruka finally interjected, and then sent a glare over at the Uzumaki boy. "Naruto," he crossed his arms. "Could you wait a minute for you turn before opening that big mouth of yours?"

"Hehe, oh sorry Iruka-sensei," Naruto said, rubbing at the back of his head nervously. "Didn't mean to interrupt. It's not my fault dog boy's got no game."

The class burst out into laughter and Kiba looked redder than a fire hydrant. Even Iruka was laughing a little. "Alright, enough. Let's just continue. Shino-kun?"

The class turned their attention to the pale boy in the dark sunglasses sitting next to Kiba, and everyone listened as the quiet boy introduced himself softly, explaining his love of bugs. All except one.

Kurin couldn't take her eyes off of the Uzumaki boy, Naruto. This was Uzumaki Naruto? This was the boy she had always heard stories about as a kid, stories about him and his older brother Kurama being the monster children of the deceased Uzumaki couple?

Kurin didn't think he looked like a monster at all. In fact, he was sort of gorgeous. His spiky blonde hair flopped across his tanned forehead over a pair of brilliant cerulean blue eyes. His tanned cheeks had three whisker marks on each side, making him look sort of like a cat . . . or a fox. They looked like scars, but from where Kurin sat she couldn't be sure. He still had a wide foxy grin stretched across his smiling face, which made Kurin smile too.

Even though Kurin didn't smile much, she couldn't help smiling now. Seeing this boy's infectious smile did something funny to her insides.

Keta was the only one who noticed how distracted Kurin had become. The dark haired girl had looked up from where she had been napping during the Uzumaki boy Naruto's rant, but kept her head up when she saw a goofy looking grin spread across her pale friend's face.

What the hell?

It was very unlike Kurin to go around randomly smiling like that. Then again, this was Kurin, and Kami knows what ever went on in her head.

"Oi," Keta whispered, poking her friend's purple head. "What gives, Kurin? You high on something I don't know about?"

Kurin jolted back in surprise and ducked her head in an attempt to hide the small blush that was forming. "N- no, idiot. I just thought of something funny, that's all."

Keta frowned. Kurin was lying, she could tell.

"You sure?"

Kurin looked away, focusing on the girl who was beginning to introduce herself now.

"Yes, now shut up and pay attention."

Keta scoffed. Kurin was telling her to pay attention? Now that was rich. Kurin was always getting lost inside her own head, and almost never paid attention to anything. But obviously something had caught her pea brain's attention in order to distract her so bad.

Keta shrugged and went back to resting her head on the desk for her nap. She would find out eventually if it was important. She always did.

"Ano … eto … m-my name is H-H-Hyuuga H-Hinata and I- I like … ano … well I like b-baking," began a stuttering girl that sat next to Shino. She had purple hair just like Kurin, but it was much darker and sleeker. It ran down her back in a perfect straight wave and she had large pale white-purple eyes to go with it.

She twiddled her fingers nervously as she spoke, trying to hide a furious blush under her purple bangs. It wasn't working.

"I don't d-d-dislike many t-t-things and I d-don't have any p-particular h-hobbies, so … I-I s-suppose that's all. M-my Edo is in t-this class w-with me. E-Edo H-hinata."

She looked meekly over at a girl sitting on her right that looked exactly like her.

Except she sat with her head held high and had a fierce look on her face, her arms crossed defiantly over the tiny provocative top she wore.

"Yeah that's right I'm Edo Hinata. One thing I really like would have to be …" she smirked. "Menma." Everyone turned to look at a dark haired boy sitting next to Naruto who was glaring angrily down at his desk. "And I really don't like any other girls making goo goo eyes at him, so don't. He isn't interested. Take my word for it. My hobbies are pounding the crap out of anybody who looks at me or Menma funny, so just don't do it. Got it? Great."

She sat back in her chair looking pleased with herself as everyone began looking away from Menma to avoid his intense glower. Keta lifted her head lazily once more to see which bigmouth was blabbering now.

She raised her eyebrows when she saw the dangerous looking boy glaring around the room.

"My name is Uzumaki Menma," growled the boy, who happened to be sitting next to the Edo Hinata girl. "And I really don't like people trying to speak for me. I also don't like over-confident slutty hoe bags who think they can get whatever they want just because they have a big attitude, so don't go assuming anything."

He sent his fiery scowl to Edo Hinata who smirked back at him, totally unintimidated. Keta sat up a little straighter. She liked this Menma boy's style.

"Now as for what I like," he continued, looking away from the purple headed girl. "There ain't much. .Motorcycles. That's about it. My hobbies are none of any of your concerns, and my counterpart is this fucktard over here, Naruto."

"Oi!" Naruto said, indignant. "Menma, you ass! Don't call me that!"

The class laughed at Naruto's childish outburst, and laughed even harder when he started pouting at their response.

"Iruka-Sensei!" Naruto cried, gesticulating wildly in his seat. "Aren't you going to yell at him too?"

Iruka shrugged and smiled at the whining boy, amused. "It's your turn Naruto." He said simply, and turned back to whatever he was doing at his desk.

From her desk in the back, Keta arched an eyebrow. This idiot was the counterpart of a cool guy like Menma?

She looked over the scowling figure once more with appreciation. It was true the two boys shared the same facial structure, but that was where the similarities ended. Well, they also shared the weird looking whisker marks on their cheeks, but who knows where those came from. Menma had dark spiky hair in stark contrast to Naruto's sunny yellow tresses. His eyes were a deep and violent crimson, so shocking in their brightness that even from across the room Keta could see the color clearly. Cloaked in layers of black and red the surly boy sat, appearing to be angry at the world until suddenly he looked up meeting Keta's curious gaze.

Keta didn't blush.

She didn't smile or wave or change her expression.

And she did not look away.

She simply lifted an eyebrow in question, as if stating "Are you worth my time?"

And abruptly Menma's scowling countenance became a knowing smirk, and he winked, as if replying "Yes, yes I am."

Keta grinned.

She was so busy with her exchange that she almost completely missed Naruto's introduction. Kurin on the other hand, was focused completely on the blonde boy's words, watching raptly as his foxlike grin widened with every word.

"Hi!" His grin couldn't get any bigger. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto, and I'm gonna be the next Hokage!"

The whole class groaned. They were all too familiar with Naruto's famous "I'm gonna be Hokage" speech. The boy was obsessed with growing up to run Konoha, insisting that he was the perfect person for the job. He claimed he wanted to help people in every way possible, and what better way to keep the people of Konoha happy than to take care of them as their Hokage?

"Oi, oi, settle down, now," Naruto said, his grin not fading in the slightest. "I've gotta inform the new kids of my brilliance too." He turned to direct his dazzling smile at the group lounging at the back of the room. Keta wasn't paying attention, Oto was busy trying to break a pen in half, and Chiku looked like she was sleeping with her eyes open. Kurin smiled sheepishly from behind her bush of purple hair, trying not to look too interested in what he was saying.

She blushed furiously and looked away when she realized she was failing.

"Remember my name, fresh meat," Naruto continued, looking away again. "Cause one day I'm gonna be running this town. Literally. Now what I like is Ramen. What I don't like is the three minutes you have to wait for the Ramen to cool off before you can eat it. My hobby is-"

"Being annoying?" A pale boy sitting behind him supplied with a smirk.

Naruto fumed. "Hey shut up teme, who asked you?"

The pale boy shook his head slightly and sighed, leaning back in his seat tiredly. "Well you've been yammering on and on for so long now, someone had to say something to get you to stop. I obliged."

"Fine then!" Naruto's happy grin was long gone as he glared furiously at the bored looking pale boy. "I'm finished now, so just go, stupid teme!"

The boy sighed one last time before sitting up and reciting with a blank expression, "My name is Uchiha Sasuke. Yes, I am one of the Uchiha's and yes, my older brother's name is Uchiha Itachi."

Keta perked up again at him saying this, and said loudly, "Little-Emo, is that you?"

The class turned to gawk at the new girl. Who was this girl, talking to an Uchiha like that? Who was she to talk to Uchiha Sasuke like that?

Sasuke frowned. "Don't call me that," he said in a deep commanding voice. Anyone else would have backed off, but not Keta. She could never take a hint.

"It's been so long, Little E, what's happening? How's your bro? What's everybody been up to lately?"

"Don't call me that," Sasuke repeated firmly, ignoring her questions before continuing hurriedly. "I do not like many things, and I hate a lot of things, but I'm not going to sit here and explain them all to you. I don't have any hobbies and don't enjoy doing anything in particular, so really, that's all I have to say."

Keta pouted.

She didn't like being ignored. She scowled as she watched Sasuke slouch back in his seat, relieved to have gotten his introduction over with before settling back down in her own seat to continue her nap. She tuned out most of the introductions after that because they were all so boring and generic until she could hear Chiku's soft voice purring through the silence and started listening again, curious to know what she would say.

"My name is Tanaka Chikushi," She began indifferently. "I do not like stupid people who annoy me and I like being left alone, so I suggest you stay away from me so we can all get along. And in case you get any misguided ideas about trying to trouble me with your meaningless problems, my hobbies are cutting up dead bodies at the morgue and pickling human flesh."

It was a lie, but the way she smirked creepily at her classroom audience made it seem like the truth. Even Keta was getting shivers.

"I am an Edo," she continued, ignoring the gasps and stares being thrown in her direction. "My counterpart is, as anyone with half a brain can clearly see, the idiot sitting next to me. Kurin?" She glanced at her 'sister' with a small smirk and waited for her to begin her own introduction.

Almost everyone then looked at Kurin, waiting for her to speak. She looked up wondering why it was so quiet and sat up a little straighter when she realized it was her turn.

"Uh … hi," she began, playing with the ends of her purple hair nervously. "I'm Tanaka Kurinkitafu, but I guess you can call me Kurin. I like a lot of stuff, like, um, Pocky and Katars and Panic! At the Disco and rotary dial telephones. And I hate stuff too like people who cut in front of you at the grocery store, and people who repeat themselves, and people who … well. I really just hate people in general."

She paused, letting her eyes float up to stare at the ceiling as she thought. She knew that introducing herself like this was unnecessary, and that no one in this room- well … no one really at all cared whether she liked rotary dial telephones or not, but almost everything she did was unnecessary anyways, so why not continue being inane?

"My hobbies?" She blinked, then smirked.

"I draw a lot and I'm good at that, but mostly I just like to hit things. And stab things. And shoot things …" If she had bothered looking down she would have seen the horrified expressions on her classmate's faces as she said all of this with a completely straight face. Instead, Kurin shrugged and played with the piercings in her left ear absently.

"And my Edo is Chikushi, like she said before. Yeah. I guess that's it. Oi, Keta," she spun around in her seat and poked her friend's hooded head from where it laid on the desk. "Wake the fuck up already, it's your turn."

"Mnngghh …" Keta swatted the other girl's hand away and lifted her head slightly, scowling. "Shaddup already, idiot, I know."

As Keta sat up fully and stretched, lazily trying to wake up a little for her turn, the boy named Kiba whispered awkwardly into the silence Kurin's introduction had created.

" … What the hell is a Katar?"

"A Katar is a special type of push dagger that this baka is obsessed with." Slowly raising her head, Keta began her introduction. "Yo, I'm Yoshida Keta. I dislike everything the spiky purple haired freak said she likes except Pocky and ramen. I like… fighting." Raising her head to the ceiling she started listing off the different ways, "I like using the katana for stabbing and slashing, with the occasional throwing knives, I love M-" She paused, catching herself before she said 'Menma's sexy eyes'. "I mean the Uzi Submachine gun. That is very destructive. But my favorite would have to be the rocket launcher. It destroys everything for an easy clean-up. Oh, I also like to beat up each and every person who dares mess with me or my family. They are strictly off limits. Nobody should tease them, make fun of them, or mess with them in any way." Looking towards the frightened students she added, "If you do, understand you'll have hell to pay." Her wolfish smirk just added to the menacing aura coming off from her.

"Oi, Keta, that's no way to introduce yourself. You're terrifying our classmates." Kurin chided the dark haired girl who gave a light wave and put her head back on the table, not breaking her gaze on her friend.

"They have every reason to be afraid. Terrified even. You have no right to tell me who's scaring the people. You're little list of hobbies had half the students reeling back in their seats." Turning away from her friend she continued in a bored tone, "Now unless you want to fight, I suggest you turn your idiotic face away from me and shut your trap so I can rest in peace." With a tired sigh, Keta placed her head on top of her arms.

"If you really wanted to rest in pieces, Keta, all you had to do is ask. Who says I don't want to fight?" Smirking at her friend Kurin waited for her words to seep in.

Keta's head suddenly shot up and she turned to look at her with a wicked grin. "You sure you want to do this now? Didn't get enough of me beating your ass this morning?" her tone was definitely mocking. Two could play at that game.

"I distinctly remember I was the one who beat your sorry butt." With a chuckle the girls slowly stood from their seats, sliding into their Taijutsu stances.

"Ugh, is the nureta mofu (1) seriously starting another fight? Don't those two ever get tired of these petty contests?" Chiku's obviously annoyed voice permeated the thick silence in the room.

"Nope, it's just how these two are. Honestly, I'd have it no other way." Oto looked at Chiku with a knowing grin, "And I know you feel the same."

"Tch," Chiku turned the opposite direction, not allowing Oto to see the very faint smile on her face. Oto stood and walked to the center of the room, right in the middle of the two girls.

"Okay you two, you know the rules. No weapons, tricks, or cheating. Just good plain fighting." Oto looked in both of their faces waiting for them to nod. Getting his desired signal, he started the countdown.

"3, 2, 1 GO!"

Oto jumped out of the way as the two wasted no time in lunging for the other, rolling onto the floor. Keta scored the first hit, a rough punch to the gut to Kurin, whom got the wind knocked out of her. Immediately getting back up, Kurin aimed a quick jab to Keta's midsection. Dodging at the last second the two continued to tussle and after a few minutes, they decided using their fists just wasn't enough.

Soon they were picking up whatever they could find lying around and began throwing anything and everything at each other. The projectiles steadily got larger and larger until Kurin threw a desk at Keta, who was standing by the window at the time. Once again she dodged and the desk was sent flying out of the classroom. The reverberating crash froze the girls in the midst of their fight, looking at the broken window in shock. They looked at each other and suddenly burst out laughing.

"The… pfft….window…HAHAHAHAHA!"

The students could only look on in utter shock as the two rolled on the floor, scattered with pencils and papers and the like, as if they didn't just have a fist fight in the middle of class.

Rubbing her stomach, Kurin calmed down from her laughing high, "Aw man, Keta~ you hit me hard! Damn, I'm definitely going to bruise because of you."

Her comment seemed to rouse Keta off her laughing fit as well, "Aw, come on. Grow a back bone. You'll be fine in a day or two. That was one of my weakest punches. You hit me pretty hard too. My back is gonna be sore all day because of you."

Rubbing the spot in question Keta approached her friend. Raising a hand they high fived each other and exclaimed, "Nice!" they continued to talk about how their skills were and what they should work on improving. Sasuke, who stood on the wall across the room from the destructive duo decided to ask the question that's been bothering the entire class, "How are you all chummy after you literally just destroyed our classroom?"

Keta laughed and threw an arm around Kurin's shoulder, thoroughly amused with the looks on their terrified classmate's faces.

"We do this all the time," she said flippantly, raking a hand through her dark hair quickly to get it out of her face. "Sometimes multiple times in one day, like this morning, And right now. And probably sometime this probably again when we get home."

"Whoa, what? You guys live together?" Kiba exclaimed in disbelief.

Kurin shrugged. "Of course."

"All four of you?"

They nodded.

"Together, like, under one roof and everything?"

"Obviously," Keta said.

Kiba stared blankly at them, clearly not getting it. "But … your parents let you do that? What are you all related or something?"

Kurin sighed. None of them really felt like explaining their no-parent situation. It always led to an awkward conversation.

She opened her mouth, trying to find the right words to explain, but thankfully was cut off when the bell rang.

"Thank Kami," She muttered under her breath as the students began to scatter out of the ruined classroom. "Talk about saved by the bell …"

The four friends began to make their way into the hallway as well when they were abruptly blocked from the door by one angry Iruka.

"Hold on just a minute, you two." He glared at Kurin and Keta and tapped his foot against the linoleum looking very displeased. "What am I going to do about this mess and the broken window? Since you're new and this is your first day, normally I'd let you off with a warning, but I think this chaos needs to be cleaned up before my next class."

Keta arched a brow apathetically and said, "You better get cleaning then, 'cause this place is a disaster zone and class starts in ten minutes."

Iruka scowled. "I meant that you two should stay behind and clean it, not me."

"I know what you meant," said Keta, moving around him so that she could walk out of the derelict classroom. "I'm just not going to do it, so I suggest you get started yourself if you want it clean."

The young teacher stood staring at her retreating form in disbelief. He turned to yell at her companions back inside the room, but was even more shocked to find that they were already gone.

"You can't talk to me like that!" Iruka called after them angrily. "I'm a teacher! Get back here and clean this mess up or report to the principal's office immediately!"

Keta raised an arm over her head in a sort of departing wave, not bothering to even turn around. Oto smirked. Chiku continued to walk as if she couldn't hear him screaming after them.

"We'll definitely do that, sir!" Kurin called, spinning around and flashing him a sarcastic smile. "You can count on us!"

And with another quick spin and a pair of deuces directed toward the indignant man, the group of four disappeared down the crowded hallway without a trace.

End of Chappie one

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**Keta: I'm not going to waste your time with an argument today. I'll save it for the chapter. Continue.**

"Did you see the look on his face?" laughed Oto, running a tanned hand through his dark hair. "Priceless. You guys are hilarious. Props to .you."

Chikushi snorted, resting lazily on the edge of the building. "I thought you said that they were supposed to behave this morning." She looked totally unconcerned by the fact that if she fell back at all, there was a thirty-foot drop to the ground. The four of them had, as was expected, completely ignored their teacher's command to go to Tsunade's office and instead decided to take a trip to the roof. Now Keta was practicing throwing knives at a piece of cardboard she had found lying around and Oto leaned up against the wall she was throwing at, knowing that Keta never missed. Kurin was, as usual, wandering a bit and pacing the edge of the rooftop in a very precarious way.

"Well, yeah," Oto admitted, thinking for a moment, "but if they behaved all the time then who would entertain us?"

"So you're finally going to stop acting like you're their mothe-?" Chiku was cut off by Oto abruptly leaving his place at the wall and hurrying over to Kurin, who was standing right on the end of the ledge, looking almost ready to jump.

"Kurin!" Oto said worriedly, tugging her backwards by the hood of her hoodie. "Stop that! What if you fall? Kami, why are you always doing things like that? Do you want to die?"

Kurin blinked up at him, seeming surprised that she was back on the ground. When she regained her ability to speak and a little of her brain function, she spoke. "I wasn't gonna jump, I swear."

The three gave her a disbelieving look she knew well.

"What? She frowned. "I wasn't. And even if I did, I wouldn't die. It's not a far enough fall."

Oto groaned, rolling his eyes. "What the hell is wrong with you, Kurin?"

"What isn't wrong with her?" Corrected Chiku with a smirk.

Kurin sighed and looked over at Keta who - surprisingly - still hadn't said anything.

"Keta, you're awfully quiet," the purple haired girl observed, making her way over to her onyx-eyed friend. Keta didn't look at her as she aimed another perfect shot at the cardboard and threw the knife like it was second nature to her, because it was. "Got nothing to say? No, 'you're an idiot, Kurin' or 'one of these days, baka, you're gonna get hit by a bus and I'm just gonna laugh'?"

Keta sniffed and moved forward to collect her knives from the cardboard to start over again. "I got nothing to say."

"Oh really?" The blue-eyed girl wrinkled her nose in disbelief. "That's a first. Are you sure you don't have any smart comments about the delicacy of my mental stability? Or about how for Christmas you're planning to get me a therapist?"

"Unless you feel like telling me about those nightmares you've been having, then no, I have nothing to say."

Kurin's smirk fell from her face immediately, and she took a step back, hiding her face behind her hair. She hated it when Keta did that, when she brought up personal things in front of Chiku and Oto so she had no choice but to face her problems. She didn't want to face her problems. She wanted to pretend they weren't there.

She wanted them not to be there in the first place, but they were, so instead of denying anything she said simply, "Then I guess you really don't have anything to say." And she turned to walk back over to the ledge.

She stopped walking when she felt a firm hand grasp her shoulder tightly.

"Kurin," Keta said.

"Keta," Kurin replied.

"What's going on with you?"

"Nothing."

"That's a lie."

"Is it?"

"You know it is."

"I know a lot of things."

"Oh yeah?"

The hand on her shoulder shook slightly.

Kurin knew better than to think it shook from anything but pure anger. She said nothing and waited for Keta's rant to begin so she could brush off all her accusations when she was finished.

"Did you know that the reason we had to move again wasn't because of me this time? That it was because you lost control and went too far?" Keta spun Kurin around so she could see her blank face, which only added to her anger."Did you remember how Fugaku wanted to take you in for questioning but I wouldn't let him? Huh? Did you remember that? Did you know that for the past frigging month you've been getting that stupid look on your face like you don't know who you are anymore? Do you feel bad, Kurin? Do you regret it? Because at the time you sure didn't seem to care. Do you have any idea how crazy you looked? Eh? Did you know _that_?"

Kurin didn't say a word.

The usually loud and hyped up group of four was suffering from a dull and eerie silence, all of which was emanating from the purple haired girl who stood in front of Keta with her head still down, hair covering her eyes.

"Come on," Kurin shook out of Keta's grasp and shoved past her towards the exit. "We're going to be late for lunch if we don't hurry."

Keta ground her teeth angrily. "Oi, Kurin," she called, her voice seething ire.

Kurin turned to blankly look back at her friend, but before she was even facing her she was thrown back by an unforgiving punch to the jaw.

She looked up from where she landed on the ground at Keta, cradling her new wound.

After a while she finally spoke, knowing she wouldn't be allowed to leave until she said something. "I don't regret it," she said, her voice very calm and even.

"But I do regret having so many witnesses."

Keta scoffed and shook her head, shoulders relaxing. "You're an idiot." She said, offering Kurin her hand.

The pale girl took it gratefully and stumbled to her feet in a very Kurin-y way.

"Tell me something I don't know," her smirk returned full force, not at all fettered by the newly forming bruise on her jaw. "Now let's get to lunch already, it's hot out here."

Oto let out a sigh of relief and was the first one to the exit. "Man, for a second there you two had me thinking I'd have to call an ambulance."

Chiku smirked and walked through the metal door he now held open, not even sparing the other two girls a second glance.

"Wouldn't be the first time," she said.

The remaining three said nothing in response as they made their way downstairs, knowing that it was the truth.

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

_Briiiiiing!_

The bell sounded throughout the hallways, announcing it was time for the lunch break. Students rushed towards the cafeteria. Others took their time before heading to eat outside, loudly declaring it was such a bright sunshiny day it shouldn't go to waste. Two girls in particular could be seen walking side by side but, to everyone's surprise, they weren't arguing. Instead they were calmly walking down the stairs from the rooftops, chatting quietly. They had lost their other companions in a group going to the cafeteria. So now, walking down the corridors, many students stopped and stared at them for no real reason at all. The rumors of the new girls, and guy, had spread around the school like the plague and everyone believed them to be loud, obnoxious, rude, mean girls. Not to mention super dark and scary. But nobody was expecting them to walk and talk… normally … like they were now. Their first impression of the two was a lot different from what they were seeing now. But you know what they say; it's just the calm before the storm.

"Ooh, look at that Sakura, the newest bitches to be enrolled at Konoha High. I can't believe Tsunade would let hoodrats like those two even walk in here, let alone allow them in the school."

Looking around, the girls spotted and big-boobed slut and a pink haired bitch laughing at them. Keta was about to march over there and punch the sense into them for talking anything bad about them but Kurin gripped onto her wrist, in a silent plea to stay out of it until the other girls made the first move. With a reluctant sigh, Kurin tugged her friend to the lunch line before Keta started something they would undeniably regret later.

Kurin dragged her friend to the back of the lunch line, but Keta, being the impatient girl she was decided that she didn't have time for that. With a shove Keta started pulling Kurin to the front of the line. Ignoring the shouts of protest, she reached the front, grabbed two trays and piled them with food. Not bothering to wait any longer she paid for the both of them quickly and got out of line. After handing Kurin her tray, sort of acknowledging her praise of thanks, she scoped out a good seat that wasn't covered in people she most definitely didn't want to talk to. Obviously luck wasn't on her side because she heard Oto's shout of "Overhere!" and turned to see a table full of a blonde idiot, a Little Emo, a shivering girl, boy who was wearing a horrible green onesie, and an amazingly hot black haired, crimson eyed boy.

_Wait, _Keta almost dropped her tray at that thought. _What did I just think? Okay Keta, calm down. You just met him. You do not like him, you do not like him._

"-ta. Keta. KETA!" Kurin's shout woke her from her inner turmoil.

"Hmm?" still dazed from her stupid argument in her head, it took Keta a good minute to realize who was talking to her. "Oh, it's you. What do you want?"

"You've been standing there staring into space for a good three minutes. What's up with you?" Kurin's curious blue orbs looked directly into Keta's black ones.

Pushing her face away from her, Keta calmly walked to the table containing her companions and the source of her inner turmoil. "Come on, dumbass. I'm hungry." Sending a questioning glance her way, Kurin didn't object to Keta's command. She knew something was definitely wrong. Keta never spaced out for any reason unless it was over something really important or something serious was stressing her. But she had time to wait for her to fess up. She knew if she asked now, Keta would just bring up her not telling her what her nightmares were about and she didn't want to have that conversation again.

Arriving at the table Keta was pretty pissed with the fact that the only vacant seats were the ones near the hyperactive blonde and his _mmmm_ counterpart. _Stop that brain! _

Sadly, Kurin rushed towards the seat near the blonde, leaving Keta to sit next to the one person she definitely did not want to be near. So slowly, and rather reluctantly, Keta sat down next to Menma who decided to smirk at her as if he knew there was something up. Closing her eyes, Keta concentrated on calming down and not letting this man affect her in anyway. Looking over to her friend, she saw she was failing miserably. Kurin was a blushing mess. Keta calmed her nerves and took the chocolate milk off of the tray. There wasn't really anything good to eat so she threw the tray over her 'brother's' head and into the trash can.

"Nice shot." She just barely stopped herself from choking on her milk and turned to the devil himself sitting next to her.

"What did you just say?" _Oh good job Keta, _she shook her head at herself slightly, disgusted._ Real cool. _

"Heh, I'm praising you. You should feel honored. I don't do it often."

With a cocky smirk he waited for Keta's response. Unbeknownst to the pair all conversation in the cafeteria ceased. Hearing Menma praise someone was definitely unheard of, especially to some random new kid.

"Honored?" Keta's disbelieving look didn't falter at his looks, "Hah. Like I care what some boy tells me. I know I'm awesome. I don't need you to tell me how good I am. I don't need to feel special or anything if I don't give a damn about you, right?" Keta chuckled at his disbelieving stare. "What'd you think I'd do? Swoon? Fawn over the fact that Mr. Badboy over here decided to acknowledge a new kid's existence? Obviously, pretty boy, you have no idea who I am. I don't fawn nor do I swoon. I don't give two flying fucks about you, nor will I ever give a fuck. Now if you don't mind, I would like to finish drinking my milk." Turning away from him and ignoring the stares and whispers of "Oh man, did she really just say that to Menma" and "She is dead" and "Oh Menma, why don't you praise me" Keta calmly went back to drinking the rest of her milk.

The cafeteria was silent for a good minute until Kurin burst out laughing joined by Oto and Naruto. The rest of the cafeteria was too shocked to even register what was going on. The only thing echoing through their minds was: shit the new girl is signing her death wish.

Kurin, about to lean over and give her friend a high five, was interrupted by a purple haired bimbo and her pink haired lackey.

"What exactly do you think you're doing sitting so close to my Menma? Huh, bitch?" the bimbo stupidly decided she had a death with and pulled Keta out of her seat.

Naruto was ready to interject when Kurin grabbed his arm stopping him from interfering. She sent a silent plea with her eyes telling him to let Keta do this. A bit reluctantly, Naruto sat back down.

Holding her up by the collar of her shirt Edo-Hinata gave her signature death stare trying to intimidate the black haired girl, only succeeding in making her even more pissed off than she was five minutes ago when she was arguing with Menma. Keeping up her calm façade, Keta looked Edo-Hinata straight in the eyes and asked her in an emotionless tone, "Do I know you?"

With a high-pitched scream, Edo-Hinata shoved Keta back against a pole in the middle of the cafeteria.

"Remember this you black haired bitch, I am Hinata's Edo and Menma is mine. Stay away from him or I will make you regret it."

Getting all up in Keta's face with her most terrifying death glare, it had some of the students recoiling in fear of just the sense of dread coming off of her body. Kurin turned to Naruto and quietly whispered in his ear, "That girl is dead."

Before he could ask what exactly she meant a resounding slam was heard as Keta's fist connected with Edo-Hinata's face. Calmly walking up to where her crumpled form mow laid on the ground, Keta bent down and grabbed her collar. Raising her up a few inches off the ground, she grinned when she saw the slightly terrified expression on the girl's face.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here? A brand new punching bag to replace the one Kurin messed up this morning." Turning to her friend Keta smirked, "Aww, you shouldn't have."

"Well I didn't," Kurin grinned right back at her friend. Sitting down to eat her strawberry applesauce, Kurin waited for the show to start.

"I'll give you something very special to remind you to never even think about threatening me again." These ominous words combined with her wolfish grin and pitch black eyes made Keta the definition of terrifying. Pulling her fist back, Keta launched it right at her cheek making the bimbo crash into the back walls. A nice sized crack appeared in the wall where she had hit. Crying out in pain Edo-Hinata realized she picked the wrong girl to mess with. About to start walking to the panting girl, Keta was interrupted when Kurin threw something to her. Quickly catching it, she realized it was a spork.

"Gouge her eyes out!"

Sending a wicked grin her way and a quick nod, Keta resumed on her path to the girl crumpled on the ground. Edo-Hinata tried to crawl away when she saw feet getting closer and closer to her. The next thing she knew, she was kicked into the pole she had recently pushed Keta against. The impact knocked the breath out of her and she started wheezing.

"Aww, is the little girl in pain?" Keta pulled the girl up by her hair, earning a scream from the girl. "Weren't you just threatening me a minute ago? You wanted me to fear you, am I right? Well I should be the one you fear."

Keta slowly brought the spork closer to her right eye, and the whimpering purple haired girl started wailing and begging Keta to forgive her. This did nothing to slow the girl down. In fact, it seemed to make the wicked glint in her eyes glow even brighter.

Before she stabbed the girl in the eye she cackled wickedly, "Yes, keep crying. Show everyone what a coward you really are!"

All in all, it seemed Keta had lost it. She was blinded by the fury building up inside and the conflicting emotions she was concealing just couldn't take it. When she was about a centimeter from piercing Edo-Hinata's eye, Keta felt a hand on her shoulder. Whipping her head around to see who dared to mess with her in her dangerous mood. She was greeted by the piercing red eyes of the dumbass who had indirectly caused the entire argument. She was expecting him to yell at her, maybe even tease her, but she definitely was not expecting the softness in his eyes, or the gentleness of his voice. She was absolutely not expecting him to pull her around to face him and... and … hug her.

Wow.

This seriously needed top be put in the record books. Yoshida Keta, known for being wild and fierce and un-submissive to anyone, and resident bod boy, Uzumaki Menma, were hugging. Right there in the cafeteria like they were the only ones there. And just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, Menma tucked Keta's head into the crook of his neck and sighed. Finally the students couldn't take it anymore and started passing out one by one. In the end only the inhabitants of Naruto's table were still conscious.

Naruto himself was about to get up to see when they'd let go of each other when suddenly Kurin started counting down, "3, 2, 1 …"

Keta abrupty sprang away from Menma and immediately put her hood up. Although she tried to hide it, Kurin spotted a faint trace of red on her friend's face. Smiling to herself, she knew she had just witnessed the biggest miracle ever. First a hug and now a blush?! Kurin eyed her friend, ready to question her as soon as possible.

_Oh my God. What did I just do?_

Calming dowm her heartbeat, Keta found the ground the ground to be very interesting.

_Wait, what am I embarassed about? I don't get embarassed. Get ahold of yourself, Keta! _Looking up, Keta faked a look of indfifference and, not allowing anyone a chance to question her, calmly walked into the hallway. Her excuse? She needed some air… and she was really getting tired of all this shit.

Kurin turned to look at Menma with a smirk, seeing a bit of red on his cheeks. Laughing at his strained expression, she quickly followed her friend, knowing that Keta would be confused and in need of comfort. It was the first time Kurin had ever seen her blush. _Ever_.

Wandering around the school for a few minutes, Kurin spotted the hooded girl on the roof throwing knives. It would have been a normal occurrence if Keta hadn't been missing her cardboard target with every throw.

Ooh, Menma got her good.

Not even looking up to acknowledge Kurin's presence, Keta continued to furiously throw the knives, determined to get Menma out of her mind by distracting herself.

"Keta," Kurin called from behind her, hands shoved in her pockets.

Ignoring her friend's presence, Keta increased the speed of her throws with a scowl.

"Keta?"

Not even turning around, Keta once again increased her pace. It seemed she wasn't even trying to hit the target anymore, just flinging the knives violently at the wall as a way to let off steam.

"Keta? Do you … uh … wanna talk about it?"

It seemed these words broke the wall holding her emotions at bay, and Keta screamed, storming around the roof in her fury. She picked up anything and everything she could find to throw violently off of the roof with a yell.

"I'm soooo done with this shit! Who the fuck does he think he is, touching me like that?! Stupid Menma and his stupid warmth, curse his stupid crimson eyes and his hotness to the depths of hell! Wait, wha? ARGH!" crouching down onto the gravel she ran her hands through her hair angrily. Letting out a groan she mumbled something that Kurin definitely wouldn't have heard, or would have thought to ever come out of her mouth, if she hadn't been so close.

"What's wrong with me?"

Burying her head in her arms, Keta refused to look at Kurin, knowing she would want to pester her with questions about what happened in the cafeteria. Truth was, she didn't know herself.

Not saying anything, Kurin crouched next to her friend, offering a shoulder to lean on if need be.

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

"_What if everyone hates me?" Asked Kurin, trying in vain to smooth down her ridiculously spiky hair._

"_They won't hate you," Keta replied easily with a roll of her onyx eyes._

"_But … what if they do?" _

"_They won't."_

"_How do you know, Keta? What if I go in there and do something stupid and everyone laughs at me? What if everyone thinks I'm weird and dumb? What if I don't make any friends?"_

_Keta looked at her friend as they stood waiting for the bus to pick them up for their first day of school in a long time. Since The Accident the two of them had been homeschooled. Their guardian, Sarutobi, who also happened to be the current mayor of Konoha, had decided the girls would be happier staying out of the public eye for a while. The Uzumaki's son, a boy named Naruto had made the mistake of going back too soon and people treated him like scum for being related to two of the scientists responsible for the whole cloning fiasco, even if it wasn't really that much of an inconvenience anymore. _

_People just loved having any excuse to hate you._

_That's what Kurin thought, anyways. She chewed anxiously on her bottom lip as Keta took hold of her shoulders and waited for her to look at her. Blue eyes met black and the two girls stared at each other seriously, or as seriously as Keta and Kurin could be when they were together._

"_You'll make plenty of friends," Keta said slowly, putting some thought into what she said for once. "And no one will call you dumb or laugh at you … except me. That's my job." Scratch that. Keta apparently never thought about anything she said before she said it._

_Kurin frowned at the last part, trying to ignore her taunt, and said, "But how do you _know_?"_

_Keta grinned and threw an arm around Kurin's shoulders as the bus rolled to a stop in front of them. _

"_Because if anyone even looks at you the wrong way I'll kick their asses to the Ice Age and back."_

_Kurin scoffed and took a step forward, letting her friend's arm fall from her shoulders as she climbed the bus steps. "I can do that myself if I need to," she said. "You know I can."_

"_Of course," Keta replied, climbing in after her. "But I look better doing it."_

"_Tch," Kurin said. "Better watch that ego, Keta. If it grows any bigger it might not fit on the bus."_

_Keta laughed as they took two seats near the front, shoving each other to get to the window seat first. "You're just jealous because you know you'll never be as cool as me. Or as genetically gifted." _

"_Genetically gifted?" Kurin asked from the aisle seat she was inevitably going to be stuck with. _

_Keta nodded and flashed her another wide smile, "Not everyone is blessed with such fantastic genes. I'm gorgeous and I know it."_

_Kurin snorted, but said nothing. Keta _was_ pretty, but honestly, Kurin didn't think about those things much. When she looked at Keta she only saw her fierce eyes and wolfish grin, the way she always looked ready for a fight and didn't care whether it was verbal or physical. How she stomped around like the world was just one big playground with her name on it. To Kurin, Keta was hardly a person at all. She was a freaking force of nature. A volcano that could erupt at any moment. A tornado with no end or beginning. A tidal wave of energy, always ready crash into you and knock you down. _

Yeah,_ Kurin thought. _Keta is definitely genetically 'gifted'.

_The Force of Nature was busy digging through her backpack for something at that very moment, looking like if she didn't find whatever it was soon she'd throw the bag out the window. After she broke it. With someone's face. _

_Kurin snorted again, and decided to take this rare moment of silence as an opportunity to scope out some of her new classmates. They were very loud. Her eyes skimmed over them one by one, memorizing faces and voices for later. She liked to keep track of everyone she saw when she went out places, even people who didn't seem important that she only saw for a moment. You never knew when you'd need to remember a face, and Kurin liked being careful. Her paranoia was one of the reasons she'd stayed alive that long._

_For the most part everyone seemed completely normal, so she was about to turn around and ask Keta what she thought their teachers would be like when she felt someone's eyes on her. She tensed immediately and snapped her head in the direction of the heated stare, trying to catch whoever it was. But she didn't really need to hurry. The person watching at her had no intention of looking away, that much was clear. _

_It was also clear that whoever this person was looked exactly like her._

_Kurin blinked._

What?

_She squinted, tilting her head a little to the right, as if she was seeing something wrong. She must have been. Why was there a girl on the bus who looked exactly like her, and why was she staring at her like that? The girl sat two rows behind her on the other side of the bus next to a tall tanned boy whose gaze was locked on something outside the window. She sat perfectly straight in her seat with her body angled towards Kurin as she stared blankly back at her. She wore a bulky black jacket __over a__ poufy__black dress that went down to her knees in a wave of big dark ruffles. On her feet she had on a pair of shiny black Mary Janes and plain white tights. _

What the hell?_ Thought Kurin, _What is this girl from the eighteen hundreds_? _

_Although Kurin did have to admit she looked sort of cool like that. The girl looked so much more put together than Kurin in her frumpy worn in hoodie and dark ripped up jeans. Almost everything Kurin wore looked like it she had owned it for years, which most likely it had. And frankly, next to such an elegant looking version of herself, Kurin felt a bit inadequate. _

"_Are you going to stare at me the entire bus ride or are you going to speak?" Asked the girl suddenly, jolting Kurin to lucidity. _

_Kurin looked around as if she wasn't sure the girl was talking to her, but scowled when she saw the girl's eyes still locked on her. "You were the one who was staring at me first. I was waiting for you to say something."_

_The other girl scoffed lightly, "Well it isn't every day I see some girl on the bus with my face and voice."_

_Kurin scowled harder. She hadn't even been paying attention to the other girl's voice, but she was right. They even sounded alike. Their soft voices could just barely be heard above the cackle of the other kids on the bus, but Kurin wasn't pleased to find that while she sounded whiny and childish, the other girl practically purred when she spoke._

"_Your face?" Kurin spat angrily, "Your voice? Who the hell do you think you are? You're obviously just some cheap photocopy version of me."_

_The other girl's lips curled into aneasy smirk and she spoke again, still purring amusedly. "I think I am Chikushi. Who do _you_ think _you_ are?"_

"_Tanaka Kurinkitafu!" Kurin said, still angry for some reason. Something about this girl, Chikushi, just really pissed her off. "That's who I _know_ I am. I don't need to think nothing."_

"_Obviously not," Chikushi simpered. _

"_What's that sup- Hey!" Kurin's face flushed with anger when she realized she had been insulted. "That's not what I-"_

"_Do you have an Edo?" Chikushi asked, cutting her off. _

_Kurin blinked. "Edo? No, of course not."_

"_And what about your little friend over there? Does she have one?"_

_Kurin turned to glance at Keta, who was still grumbling as she dug through her bag. "Keta? No she doesn't have one either. Why-?"_

_She froze when the boy sitting next to Chikushi turned to look at her. He didn't really look like Keta much, other than his dark spiky hair and tan skin, but the way he looked at her practically screamed Force of Nature. It screamed Keta. _

_Kurin's eyes got wide. "Are you …?"_

_She didn't have time to finish her sentence before the two strangers stood and made their way to the seat next to theirs. As they sat down, Keta looked up from her grumbling and gaped when she saw Chikushi's familiar looking face._

"_Kurin wha-?"_

"_I am Chikushi and this is Otonashi and I may be completely mistaken in saying this, but I do believe that you are our originals. Oto and I are Edos whose originals died in an explosion during The Accident. We found them lying in puddles of blood, so we assumed them both to be dead, and we didn't know that we were Edos at the time, so we did not assume that they could be our counterparts. We went back after the aftermath, but the two bodies were gone." She glanced at Otonashi and then back to the two girls. "I only got to see their faces for a moment, but now I am quite certain you two were them. You see, I have a very good memory when it comes to faces."_

_Kurin shivered. This girl had a good memory for faces? That was just like her. She turned to Keta, biting her lip anxiously._

"_We didn't wake up until after the explosions, right? We woke up in the hospital," she said._

_Keta nodded, narrowing her eyes at the two strangers, "Yeah, but how can we be sure? We don't know them. They could just be two stupid liars trying to con us into something."_

_Chikushi smirked and spoke again, just as calmly. Apparently Keta's taunting had no effect on her. "There are DNA comparison stations in every public school in Konoha. It's protocol, just in case a situation like this arises. Now I could be completely wrong, as I said, but why not check just for the hell of it? What do we have to lose?"_

_Keta nodded her consent. "Sure, why not?"_

_The boy Otonashi ginned. "My original might be a chick? Is that even possible?"_

_The two began joking like they had known each other for years, and Chikushi smirked again, content._

_Kurin frowned._

_What if these two really were her and Keta's long lost Edos? What would they do about it? What would they tell Sarutobi? Would the two strangers come and live with them on their family estate just because they shared some DNA? So what? Kurin didn't trust them. Well, she didn't trust Chikushi. Something about her made Kurin want to claw out her eyes and set something on fire. Everything about the other girl bothered her. The way she spoke, the way she smirked, even the way she sat, all straight and proper-like. _

_Would she be able to live with someone she hated?_

_Could she even say she hated her, when she had known her for a grand total of five minutes?_

"_Oi, Kurin, get your ass up. We're at school and you're in my way."_

_Kurin was shaken out of her thoughts when Keta shoved her up out of her seat and she stumbled, nearly falling on her face. A thin pale hand caught her just before she hit the ground, dragging her to her feet._

"_Be more careful, nureta mofu. Wouldn't want you messing up that pretty little face of yours, now would we?" Chikushi's smirking face came into view, and Kurin immediately scowled. "Or should I say face of _ours_?"_

_Chikushi ignored Kurin's rants of protest as she made her way off the bus calmly, followed by Keta and Otonashi. _

"_What in the bloody fuck did you just call me!?" She yelled, chasing after them. "Oi, get back here! Say it to my face, China doll girl. _My_ face!"_

Yes,_ Kurin thought as she raced after the group of three. _It's very possible to hate someone you just met.

_Chikushi sniggered when she tripped Kurin and she stumbled into Keta who smacked her in the head._

Very possible indeed.

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

"This is getting ridiculous," Kurin said with a sigh.

Two weeks had passed since the whole 'hugging Menma in the cafeteria' incident had occurred, and things still hadn't gotten any better. Kurin herself was doing fine, was attending her classes and staying out of trouble … well, as much so as was possible for someone who hated school. And Chiku and Oto were doing all right as well. In fact, they were doing even better than Kurin when it came to the 'not getting into trouble' bit. Once or twice Kurin could be seen in the halls harassing one Haruno Sakura. But of course if you asked the purple-headed girl about such matters she would simply smirk and say, "I didn't punch her. She tripped into my fist-bump. I was being completely friendly and non-violent. Totally accidental."

Uh huh. Sure.

But even with that in mind, Kurin was doing surprisingly well in school so far. It was Keta who was having problems.

She skipped almost every class, if she even went to school at all, and when she did show up she would make a beeline for the roof instead of walking through the halls. At almost any time of day during the week the sound of knives being thrown at their targets could be heard coming from the roof, Keta's angry grunts following close behind. Any time Keta wasn't up on the roof brooding she was busy terrorizing anyone who breathed too close to her. The only exceptions to this violent treatment would be Kurin, Chiku, and Oto, who still quietly followed their angry friend around the school, feeling obligated to keep her fury in check. No one could talk any sense into her. Anyone who tried would end up either covered in blood or running for his or her life in horror. Or both.

And don't even think about the cafeteria.

Keta avoided that place like it was the plague, and never ate lunch there. Kurin would always bring food to her up on the roof, even though she didn't deserve it. Even if she was acting like a brat and was avoiding her problems and was taking her anger out on innocent people and never said thank you for any of the food, Kurin still brought her lunch every day. And everyday she would go back to the roof after school to pick up the empty tray and collect her scowling friend for the ride home. Unlike everyone else, Kurin didn't ask Keta questions or try to get her to talk about what was bothering her. She already knew. And she didn't try to get her to calm down about it either because she knew better than anyone that if there's one thing Yoshida Keta was good at, it was holding a grudge. Well, she was also very good at throwing knives and intimidating people, but that was beside the point.

Kurin knew that if Keta was going to get over this, she would have to work it out on her own. But two weeks had passed and Kurin was not a very patient girl, so now, armed with a box of Pocky and three cartons of chocolate milk, Kurin was going to speed up the process.

She walked out onto the rooftop, rugged brown boots slapping against the concrete as she calmly made her way over to her angry friend. Usually she set the tray on the ledge and left after saying a quiet greeting, but this time he walked right behind Keta as she continued to throw, holding the tray like it was a treasure.

Kurin smirked.

She knew how grumpy Keta could get when she missed lunch. Especially when Pocky was involved.

"Keta," she waited for her friend to stop throwing knives and acknowledge her, but of course, Keta being the stubborn creature that she was, ignored her completely and continued to throw her knives.

"Keta," Kurin eventually repeated. "I brought you Pocky."

Keta froze mid-throw for a moment before regaining her composure and throwing again with a disinterested sniff.

Kurin sighed. So _that's_ how it was going to be.

She set the tray down on the ledge and smirked when she saw Keta's shoulders relax. She thought she was giving up. How cute.

Kurin decided to mess with her friend a little as pay back for being such a brat and started walking towards the exit slowly, as she usually did. Keta let out a little sigh of relief as she let her next knife fly, but frowned when that knife was suddenly caught and thrown with ridiculous speed and accuracy back at her. She ducked just before the knife had time to bury itself between her dark eyes and sighed again, this time because she was frustrated.

Keta was very good at a lot of things. Throwing knives included. And there were many things that Keta was better at than Kurin, with a few exceptions.

Throwing knives just happened to be one of those exceptions.

Kurin smirked widely. "You know, for someone who spends so much time practicing you really haven't gotten any better."

"Oh shut up." Keta growled. "How 'bout we have an arm wrestling match? We'll see whose better then."

"Please," Kurin said dismissively. "I may be an idiot, but I'm not dumb enough to think I could beat you in something like that. Everyone knows you're stronger than me."

Keta frowned. That wasn't partially true. Kurin was an idiot, and Keta was a lot stronger than her when it came to fighting, but Kurin wasn't as stupid and reckless as she'd like everyone to believe. You put a pair of knives in her hand and she became deadly. Seriously. I mean the girl ran around fighting with a pair of _Katars_ for Kami's sake. Those things looked easy to use, but honestly, Keta had never met a weapon she was worse at using. And she was good at using a lot of weapons. You had to be insanely accurate to be able to fight with those things and not cut your arm off in the process. Kurin many have been an idiot, but she was an accurate idiot.

Keta scoffed.

_Yeah, because_ that _makes sense._

"Look," Kurin continued with a sigh. They were sighing a lot today, weren't they? "I didn't really come up here to fight. I just want to know how much longer you're planning to pout and avoid Menma so I can move on with my life. Because not having you around is really boring."

Keta made an indignant noise. "I am not pouting. Nor am I avoiding anyone. I am Yoshida Keta and I do not avoid things."

"Right," said the blue-eyed girl with a snort. "Well I'm Tanaka Kurinkitafu and I say you are avoiding things. A certain red-eyed motorcycle driving thing that won't stop asking where you've run off to."

"Well …" Keta took a minute to think of a good comeback. When she found one, she grinned maniacally in evil excitement. Kurin couldn't deny this one. "What about you? You're avoiding you're problems too, just in a different way."

"What? What are you going on about now?"

"The nightmares," Keta smirked wider when Kurin's countenance grew grim. "And Naruto. You're avoiding both of them"

"Naruto has nothing to do with this," Kurin spat out. "Neither of those things do."

Keta rolled her eyes. "Well you can't come and lecture me about avoiding my problems when you're doing the same thing. When did you become such a hypocrite, Kurin?"

"I became a hypocrite right around the same time you became a coward," Kurin was mad now. Keta tensed up, ready for her to make the first move. They were going to fight for real this time. She could feel it. "At least I don't cause problems for other people and mess up everything because I'm busy pouting like some big immature brat."

"Because instead of taking it out on other people you take it out on yourself," Keta said before she could stop herself. Oops. She was always mean, but not like this. Not to Kurin. "And that's even worse because at least I have the guts to let people know I'm angry. You just sit there like nothing bothers you and expect all your problems to magically disa-"

Keta was cut off by a furious kick to the face.

_Whoa._

She stumbled, wiping blood from her chin. Usually she could see Kurin's attacks coming from miles away, but that was out of nowhere. She had been helpless for a second there. Keta frowned, biting her bloody lip. She didn't like that very much.

"You kicked me …" Keta jumped to her feet and lunged at the purple-haired girl. "In the face!"

Kurin spun out of Keta's infuriated grasp. Keta scowled and charged towards her again. When did she get so fast?

"Yeah," Kurin had somehow gotten behind her and put her in a very tight headlock. "And it was pretty damn fun. I might do it again."

Keta laughed sharply. "Ha! Have you forgotten who you're talking to? One lucky shot doesn't make you better than me." And with that, Keta promptly sunk her teeth into Kurin's arm and Kurin jumped back, grunting in pain.

"Kuso!" Kurin spat, and wound her fist back for a punch. "I don't need rabies from your dirty mouth!"

"I don't have rabies!" Keta spat back, "Its pronounced herpes!"

Kurin stopped. "Wait … what? You have herpes? Since when?"

Keta laughed before aiming a deadly roundhouse kick to Kurin's stomach. "Psyche!"

Kurin somersaulted back onto her feet and hissed, "That was so uncalled for."

"Your face is uncalled for!" Keta said, running over to punch her again.

"Oh that is it …" Kurin growled, and dodged Keta's attack and made a run for the cardboard target with the knives.

Keta spun around, eyes wide. "You wouldn't …"

Kurin smirked evilly, picking up a knife and slipping it into her left hand.

"I think I would …"

Keta blinked when she felt something trickle down her right arm. She touched it and felt something warm. Pulling her arm back she saw it was her blood. Oh, now she was definitely _pissed_.

"Oh, no you did not. That was my punching arm!" Keta gained a vicious glint in her eye. "If you wanna play like that, then by all means _let's play._" Slowly stalking towards Kurin with a new purpose.

Quickly realizing her mistake, Kurin looked from Keta's arm to her face over and over again. _Shit_ _I am screwed_. Backing up every time Keta approached her, Kurin visibly shook. "H-hey, Keta? Yeah, um… you know I was just playing right? R-right?"

"Of course, my dear Kurin. Playing is fun right? Lets play my favorite game. Predator and Prey. Guess who's the prey, huh? I'll give you a hint. it starts with Y and ends in U."

"Uh … me?"

"NO!" Keta rushed forward and pushed Kurin back as hard as she could, making her friend fly backwards into the ledge and roll over the side, violently thrashing around the whole way, trying to keep herself from falling. "YOU!"

There was no scream.

Keta blinked from where she had tripped and now sat on the ground, panting and bloody and tired. "Kurin."

No response. She couldn't see anything from where she sat, and her nerves dropped into her stomach with the vicious pounding of her heart.

"Kurin?"

Getting up, she slowly approached the ledge.

"Oi, baka. If you're still alive it'd be a good time to say something."

She waited a few seconds, but didn't get a response. As she was about to freak out about her friend being a pile of flesh, bones and blood on the street, she heard a loud gasp and a voice she thought she wouldn't hear again yelling profanities. _She's alive. _

_Yay. _

"Oi, Keta get your ass over here and get me off of this ledge!" approaching the ledge, Keta found her friend hanging sideways looking like she's hugging the wall.

_Only Kurin would hang like that, _Keta thought with a shake of her head.

"Don't … just … stand there …" Kurin said, her arms beginning to shake with the strain of holding so much weight in such an awkward position. "Frigging … help me UP."

Keta smiled wickedly, thinking this was the perfect opportunity to seek revenge. _I mean, it is her fault. _"Nah … I'm good."

"KETA!" Kurin choked out angrily. "My arm is really starting to hurt now. Seriously. I'm dying!"

"Oh really!?" Keta held up her ruined right arm and waved it tauntingly above Kurin. "Well join the club!"

Kurin scowled and grunted as her hands began to slip. "Fine! Fine I'm sorry!"

"I'm afraid," Keta smirked. "I didn't quite hear you … What was that?"

"I said I'm sorry!" Kurin cried, growing desperate. "Gomenasai, Keta! Gomenasai!"

"Excuse me? Could you repeat that?"

Kurin's right hand slipped off and she clung to the ledge with her remaining right arm. "KETAHURRYUPALREADYI'MGONNADIEE!"

With a roll of her dark eyes, Keta moved forward, grabbing Kurin by her pale arms and pulling her over the ledge. "Hai, hai, I hear you already. I'm helping … drama queen …"

Kurin clawed her long nails into Keta's hoodie and held on for dear life as her dark haired friend calmly deposited her back onto the rooftop.

"Better?" Keta asked.

"Kami," Kurin said, shoving Keta back angrily. "Let's never do _that _again."

Keta sighed. "Agreed."

"So are we cool now?" Kurin asked, rubbing her right shoulder and wincing slightly. "Are you going to come back to socialize with the rest of humanity?"

"I don't really see why I need to … but why not, whatever."

Kurin smiled with relief and sighed. _Finally._

"Good. Then let's get the h-"

"Wait," Keta held up a hand, cutting Kurin off abruptly. "What about my chocolate milk? And my Pocky? I'm starving."

The two turn to look at the ledge and blink at the empty space on there. Frowning, they moved closer to look over the edge.

Keta looked away, wincing. "Aww, man … my Pocky …"

Kurin shook her head. "That shit cost me five bucks."

"I think Kami is trying to give us a sign. We should never fight again if this is going to be the result. Such a waste …"

"… we should hold a memorial service in honor of the brave chocolate that went into that Pocky and milk. We should bury it."

"Annnd now the moment is over. Thank you, Kurin, for ruining my sappy mood."

"Aww come on, Keta, don't you think it would be a nice gesture?"

"I think a nicer gesture would be you shutting your big mouth before I throw you off the roof again for real and bury _you_."

"Okay Okay! Jeez, it was just a suggestion. Why are you so pissy all the time?"

"Because you're alive instead of my Pocky and chocolate milk. I'm really hungry now."

"I love you too, Keta. I love you too."

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

**Kurin: Yes. We know that this is just a pile of sap this chapter. We apologize if you are offended by our sap. And by WE of course I mean KETA. **

**Keta: What? I have no idea what you're talking about.**

**Kurin: Are you kidding me? That was just a pot of sap you made. Underneath a giant double rainbow of sap.**

**Keta: Don't forget the sappy Leprechaun with rivers of sap that fly out of his tiny little sappy pockets.**

**Kurin: See? Sap. In any case, we apologize. But there will be more sap in future chapters. Not next chapter necessarily … but you know … eventually …**

**Keta: Real specific Kurin. Good job.**

**Kurin: Thank you~ :3 I try.**

**Keta: I was being sarcastic.**

**Kurin: So was I.**

**Keta: Whatever. Can't wait to see your part about Naruto~**

**Kurin: Part? What is this part that you speak of? I know of no part.**

**Keta: You know what I'm talkin' bout.**

**Kurin: … Annnnd on that note … REVIEW! Do it and I will give you free tickets to Anime Land. ****(Not really) ****Just DO ITTT.**

**Arigato! Have a lovely day.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Kurin: Hey guys or girls or whoever the hell is reading this stuff … next chappie has arrived. This … is an okay chapter. Don't really know how I feel about it. Reviews would be nice, if anyone feels like doing that, because I have no idea if any of this is good or not.**

**Keta: Stop rambling Kurin and get the story going.**

**Kurin: What? That's coming from you when you get so off topic … pfft.**

**Keta: I'm never off topic. Always totally 100% focused.**

**Kurin: Pfff … bwahahahahah right. And I don't have a strawberry applesauce addiction. Of course.**

**Keta: … you really should stop with that stuff. That applesauce is gonna kill you if you eat too much. It's gross. **

**Kurin: Shaddup. It's perfect. **

**Keta: But you don't even use a spoo-**

**Kurin: SO here's the story. Enjoy! ^-^**

Chapter 3

Kurin sighed as her and her grumbling friend made their way down the stairs to the roof. Keta was _still_ mad about the Pocky. (1)

"I mean it's your fault since you threw the knife and provoked me." Keta pouted as they walked into the empty school hallway. Lunch must have ended.

"Yeah, well, you offended me, so …"

"Because you were bugging me and calling me a coward!" Keta shot back.

Kurin shrugged. "Was I wrong?"

Keta angrily threw her hood back over her head, a gesture Kurin knew meant she had won the argument for now, no matter what Keta said.

"You shouldn't have bought me any Pocky in the first place if you weren't planning on giving it to me."

Kurin snorted. "Now you're not even making any sense. Obviously I was planning on giving it to you. Its not my fault you decided to throw me off the roof in the _exact_ place I happened to put the tray. If you're going to pout, do it right."

Keta scowled. "I am not pouting! I'm mourning the loss of my Pocky. And my milk. Maybe the box didn't break … should we check and see if it's still there?"

Kurin rolled her eyes and stopped walking, putting her hands on her hips and looking tiredly at her friend. "Keta, you're being pathetic. I'll buy you some more Pocky, okay?"

Keta stopped walking as well. " … Right now?"

Kurin nodded.

"Milk, too?"

The purple haired girl sighed, but nodded again with a half smirk.

Keta grinned. "Nothing goes better with Pocky than chocolate milk."

Kurin snorted, and Keta sort of laughed, which made Kurin laugh too. And soon before either of them could stop it they were having a laughing fit in the middle of the hallway. It was always like this. The two would have an argument, fight a little, yell a little, get what was bugging them off their minds, forgive each other, joke about how stupid their fight was, and always ended up laughing at the end.

Granted this fight was a little rougher than usual, but …

"Bwahahaha and t-the look on your face when I went for the knife! Priceless!" Kurin gasped, shaking her head.

Keta nodded through her laughter looking like a hooded bobble head, which only made Kurin laugh harder. "Ahahahh yeah," Keta agreed. "A-and w-when you were hugging the w-wall … hahahahahahaha! Ridiculous!"

"D-don't forget … hahah …about how stupid-"

Kurin was interrupted by the loud buzz of the school intercom and the angry voice of Tsunade being loudly broadcasted across the school:

"Would two troublesome brats by the name of Yoshida Keta and Tanaka Kurinkitafu kindly get their lazy laughing butts out of my hallways and into my office immediately!? I need to have a word with the two of you."

Their laughing stopped abruptly, and the two said brats blinked at each other, now frowning.

"Shi-" started Keta with a grimace.

" …Taki mushrooms," ended Kurin with a sigh.

"Can I run, or are you gonna drag me over to be yelled at again?" Keta asked.

Kurin, who was now back to her usual smirking self, smirked, and grabbed her dark haired friend by the back of her hood, pulling it down again.

"Let's just get this over with."

"Gahh but Kurin," Keta struggled a bit against her purple-headed friend's pull, but she ultimately gave in after they walked through the office doors. "I don't want to."

Kurin ignored her as she greeted Shizune with her most polite smile. "Konnichiwa Shizune-san. Is Tsunade waiting for us in her office?"

"Konnichiwa girls," Shizune gave them a little wave and smiled nervously back at Kurin. "I'm afraid Tsunade-sama isn't in the best mood this morning, but yes, she is waiting for you."

Kurin put on her only-for-nice-adults charm and with another brilliant smile and a flourish of her hand she opened Tsunade's office door and dragged Keta inside before she could make her escape. "Oh I'm sure we'll be fine. Thank you very much though!"

"You creep me out when you get all polite like that," Keta mumbled as they made their way inside Tsunade's dark office.

"What? It's easier being polite than fighting with everyone about everything. I reserve all my good comebacks for my fights with you anyways. And I like Shizune. She's nice."

If Keta had a retort she was cut off by the lights in Tsunade's office flickering ominously when a manicured hand shot up to turn the lamp on. "Well look who decided to show up," Tsunade was grinning widely from where she sat with her hands folded across her desk. It was not a very pleasant grin. "Why don't you take a seat? I'd like to discuss a few things with you."

The two friends exchanged a look and sat down slowly in the two chairs that had been placed in front of their principal's desk, almost as if they were afraid they would be bitten by something if they sat down.

"Good," Tsunade's evil grin did not falter. "I'm not even going to question why you're not wearing uniforms, but the next time I see you out of uniform I'm going to drag you into this office and super glue the uniform on you so you have to wear it. All the time. Understood?"

They nodded hesitantly, frowning.

"Brilliant," she continued. Now, first, I'd love to know … why you both look like you were hit by a truck." The two girls looked at each other and down at themselves in wonder. They had forgotten about their fight. Kurin and Keta were so used to being covered in cuts and bruises every day from their constant brawling that they had forgotten how beat up they looked.

But they did look terrible. Kurin had a black eye and several other bruises on her jaw and cheeks from Keta's dangerous punches. The rest of Kurin was covered in a heavy black knitted sweater layered under a deep violet hooded jacket and a pair of impossibly tight dark blue jeans, but her hands were visible, scraped and swollen. Keta's sleeveless crimson hoodie exposed the deep and bloody gash on her upper right arm and the claw marks from Kurin's sharp nails on her left. On Keta's face you could just barely see the beginnings of a fresh bruise from the deadly kick Kurin had landed on her jaw. Her dark tank top and shorts easily hid any blood that might have spattered on her clothes, but her white Adidas sneakers had little red droplets scattered across the tops. Both of the girls' hair was tangled and messy, spiked up in all different directions around their beat up faces.

Keta began to laugh and pointed at her friend amusedly. "Hah! We look like we just crawled out of a chainsaw factory."

"Yeah," Kurin smirked. "Nice cut you got on your arm there, Kay."

Keta's eyebrow twitched and she turned to glare at the pair of cool blue eyes that appraised her. "Urusanai, rokudenashi!(2)" Keta growled. Kurin knew she hated it when she called her Kay. "Nice face, I love the whole raccoon look you've got going on."

"You'd know, wouldn't you? You little-"

"Oi, oi, nobody answered the damn question!" Tsunade's yelling cut off Kurin. "What the hell happened?"

"This idiot decided starting a fight with me would be a good idea," Keta supplied, still glaring at Kurin, who now sat slouched in her chair with one hand buried in her pocket and the other spinning the piercings around her left ear.

"But you two fight all the time and you never look like this," Tsunade reasoned, looking at their wounds doubtfully.

"Those were just play fights," Kurin explained. "This was sort of real."

Tsunade made a noncommittal grunt and sat back in her chair. If they looked this bad after an only semi-serious fight, she worried she had more work cut out for her than she originally thought. These two were dangerous, and if left unchecked they would either end up killing each other or worse, seriously harming one of her students.

"Look," Tsunade said. "We need to talk about your behavior this week. This," she gestured vaguely to their bloodied forms, "included. It's unacceptable. Keta, you've been skipping almost every class for the past two weeks and what little classes you did attend you disrupted by arguing with the teachers. Which is bad enough on it's own, but you've also been threatening my students. One parent called me the other day saying you threatened to gouge her daughter's eyes out with a spork in the cafeteria. I mean honestly, Keta? A _spork_?" Tsunade shook her head. "Another parent called in saying her son didn't want to come to school because your locker is above his and he was afraid you'd kill him if he stood too close."

"Oh, come on!" Keta rolled her eyes. "I hardly ever even show up to school let alone go to my locker. I don't know why he's so paranoid."

"Maybe," Kurin smirked, "because you threatened to beat him to a pulp with his own skateboard and shove the wheels down his throat unless he stopped leaving it out for you to trip on."

Keta glared. "Oi! Are you on my side or not?"

Kurin shrugged and started braiding her hair into the drawstrings on her hoodie. She sometimes did weird things like that. "The winning side."

Tsunade huffed. "Not like you're any better. You've been terrorizing that one girl … the one with the pink hair. Sakura? Yes, that's her name. Haruno Sakura. She came into my office crying the other day with a fractured pinky and a bleeding nose."

Kurin smirked. "I had nothing to do with that. Maybe she was picking her nose so hard she broke her finger and made her nose bleed, and decided blaming me for it would be easier than admitting to her own stupidity."

Keta gave up trying to be angry with Kurin and burst out laughing while Tsunade tried desperately to hold back a giggle. Kurin's smirk grew until Tsunade got a hold of herself and stood, looming over them sternly.

"That's enough of that. You both obviously have some behavioral problems that need to be addressed. Now if this was a normal infraction I would have expelled you on the spot-"

Keta's face lit up in anticipation, nodding her head and smiling.

"However."

Keta's hopeful expression fell into a deep scowl.

"Since you are my granddaughter and a close family friend I am willing to make an exception."

Kurin frowned. "What sort of exception?"

Tsunade's wicked grin returned full-force and she got this terribly malicious glint in her eyes. "You two are both going to attend therapy sessions every other day after school until I deem you well off enough to stop."

"Nani?(3)" Keta blinked. "It almost sounded like you said we're going to-"

"Therapy," Tsunade said easily, suddenly producing a cup of sake from somewhere and taking a long sip. "Get ready girls. Your first session starts this afternoon with the guidance counselor, Kakashi."

"Are you kidding me?" Keta face palmed. "Kakashi? How is he even allowed to work with children?"

"But that's not fair!" Kurin yelled, indignant. "Tsunade! I'm not the cause of all the problems! Sure, I had a few accidents when that Sakura slut just happened to be around, but that's all! I've been going to all my classes and everything."

Tsunade shook her head, dismissing her words. "If I've learned anything from knowing the two of you as long as I have, it's that when one of you is involved the other isn't far behind. You're a pair. Anything that happens to one affects the other, alright? This is no different."

"But Tunade-baachan!" Keta cried. "I don't want to be in a pair with her! She's an idiot."

"Yeah, I'm a-" Kurin cut herself off, scowling. "Oi! Stop insulting my intelligence and help me. Whose side are you on?"

Keta scoffed, throwing Kurin's own words back at her. "The winning side."

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

A short while later the two indignant girls were kicked out of Tsunade's office, still yelling at each other and arguing. They were taken – more like forcibly dragged – to the class they were supposed to be in by the school security guard, Ibiki, who they didn't try to get away from because, let's face it … the guy looked like Jack the Ripper's mail man.

"This is all your fault Kurin," Keta was saying, pointing accusingly at the other blue-eyed girl. "I could still be chilling up on the roof if you hadn't showed up and guilt tripped me into coming down here. Now look what's happened. We got yelled at, we're being dragged to freaking _Iruka's _class, my crazy grandmother threatened to super glue ugly clothes onto my body, you still haven't gotten me my Pocky, I'm hungry, we're being taken to Iruka's class, my jaw really hurts and so does my arm, we're being taken to Iruka's class, I'm all bloody and dirty now and tired, I still don't have any Pocky, and oh yeah. Did I mention we're being taken to _Iruka's_ class?"

Kurin rolled her eyes and swatted her hand away. "How do you talk so much without stopping once? It's unnatural. And what's so bad about going to Iruka's class? He nags a lot, but he's sort of a push over. And he's really positive."

Keta gave Kurin a weird look. "Positive? Since when do you care about positivity? You're probably the most negative person I've ever met."

"What?" Kurin shoved her hands in her pockets. "It's refreshing."

"Refreshing?" Keta shook her head, scoffing. "You're retarded. I wasn't complaining about Iruka. He's fine. He nags, like you said, but he's alright."

"So what's the problem then?" Kurin asked. The two girls were totally absorbed in their own conversation, completely forgetting that Ibiki trailed close behind, silently making sure they didn't try to skip class … again.

"I just …" Keta sighed. "I don't wanna go to his class."

Kurin's brows furrowed momentarily, confused, until she remembered what had started this whole mess.

"Ohh, I get it! You're avoiding-" _Menma_.

"Say it," Keta threatened, cutting Kurin off. "And I will burn your sketchbook."

Kurin's eyes grew wide. "You wouldn't. You couldn't. You don't even know …"

She let herself trail off at the sight of the malicious look on Keta's face. "I memorized your locker combination on the first day," Keta said, smirking at Kurin's panicked expression. She knew better than anyone how important Kurin's sketches were to her. Especially now that they were all of a certain blonde haired idiot …

"Or better yet, why don't I just take the book and put it in Naruto's locker with a love note from you on the back." Keta revised her evil plan, grinning widely.

"Oh shut up," Kurin said crossly. "I don't like him. Those sketches are … purely scientific. Research. I needed a model on how to draw male proportions, and he's the perfect subject."

"Perfect?" Keta teased. "So he's _perfect_, is he?"

Kurin scowled and struggled to find a good comeback. "No. I just meant his face is per- uhm … nice- no … good for drawing. Yeah. Very … symmetrical."

"Whatever," Keta said. "You don't have to tell me how you're avoiding him. But … now I'm curious. How _are_ you avoiding him? What have you been up to the past two weeks?"

The purple haired girl shrugged, slowing their pace a bit as they walked. "Not much. It's been … very, well, boring without you around. No one to argue with. Well, there's always Chiku, but that's different. She never tries to throw me off the roof."

"Yeah?" Asked Keta, a little surprised. Kurin usually wasn't so sentimental. She almost sounded sad about her not being there.

"Yeah."

Keta smirked. "You miss me?"

Kurin scoffed. "Naw, I just didn't have as much to do with you not there starting trouble." She sounded nonchalant, but when she changed the subject a little too quickly, it became more of an excuse. "What about you?"

Keta looked away and sped up again, wanting to hurry to the classroom and avoid this conversation, even if it meant having to deal with He Who Must Not Be Named. She didn't want to tell Kurin who she'd been hanging out with while she skipped class.

"Uh … yeah, no," the dark haired girl tried to think of a way to lie without sounding suspicious. "I haven't been up to anything … or no, I mean … nothing's been going on … lately …"

She glanced at Kurin and winced when she saw two distrustful blue eyes gazing back at her. Kurin said nothing, just accused Keta silently and demanded an explanation with her disbelieving scowl.

"Fine, fine," the raven-haired girl growled out eventually. "I've been going out to visit some friends when I skipped school."

" … Friends?"

Keta nodded, purposely being vague. "Yeah, you know … friends."

Kurin looked puzzled again, not seeming to understand. Keta sped up, desperately trying to reach Iruka's class before her bewildered friend could come to the inevitable conclusion that, yes, Keta had gone to visit-

"You-!" Kurin gasped, eyes growing wide and flashing with anger. Keta took hold of Kurin's pale wrists and shoved her through Iruka's classroom door before she could say another word, flashing a wolfish grin at Ibiki before letting the door fall closed. When she turned to look at the class she found all eyes on her, including Kurin's. Except all the students looked shocked to see Keta showing up to class, while Kurin looked like she wanted to punch her in the face and cry at the same time.

Keta didn't blame her.

"Oh- uh …" she smiled quickly at the class and nodded to Iruka in a very un-Keta way before continuing to her desk in the back anxiously, avoiding her angry friend as much as possible. "Sorry for the interruption, I guess. We're late. Dunno if you heard but … we had business with Tsunade and ..." Everyone took in her and Kurin's beaten up appearances. "Other stuff."

The class broke into shocked whispers of "Whoa, look at them! Did they do that to each other?" and "Are they okay? Shouldn't they be in a hospital or something?" and "What do you think Tsunade-sama had to say to them?" as Kurin's hands clenched harshly into fists and she glared daggers at Keta, who was busy trying to ignore her and a certain red-eyed badboy's stares.

"Oh," Iruka seemed to finally get over his shock even though people started whispering again when they saw Kurin's furious countenance. "Well, that's alright. I'm just happy you're both finally in class to learn." He smiled weakly. "It's good to see you again Yoshida-san."

Keta sniffed and threw her hood over her head before laying down on the desktop for a nap. Iruka seemed to be over the whole 'breaking the window and ruining the classroom' thing that had happened a while ago, but he still looked between the two girls uneasily, as if he was afraid they would start fighting at any moment.

For all that Kurin was glaring at Keta, they very well could have.

Even though Keta was lying down, she tensed when Kurin passed her on her way to her desk. She could feel the anger rolling off of the purple haired girl in waves. Kurin reeeealllllly didn't like her 'friends'.

Kurin glared at Keta's hood as she sat in her seat, but said nothing. _Keta is an idiot, _she thought. _Idiot, idiot, idiot. What's she thinking hanging out all buddy-buddy with the enemy? It's like she knows how dangerous it is, but she doesn't care. _

Of course it wasn't dangerous if they didn't find out who they were, but still. Keta was an idiot for hanging out with members of their archenemy, The Akatsuki. Sure they had known Itachi and his friends for years, and sure they treated Keta like family, but they weren't so kind to Kurin. She was closest to Deidara who shared her passion for art and making thing explode. Kisame thought she was amusing, and thought her blue eyes were cool. Black Zetsu and White Zetsu along with Obito, Konan, and Pain were hardly ever around, but when they did show up they mostly ignored her. Itachi was neutral, of course, as he was to everyone. Totally uncaring while his Edo remained completely insane and liked to mess with Kurin all the time. Edo-Itachi and Tobi were always teaming up to pull pranks on her, but they were friendly pranks. Jokes. Hidan, Kakuzu, and Sasori were just assholes.

She liked their Edos though.

Of course Keta was close to all of them, not caring who it was. They were like her second family. Even after her and Kurin had found out they were all involved with Akatsuki she couldn't stay away. Kurin humored her at times, and went with her to visit them, but made her promise never to go see them alone.

Obviously Keta's word was worth about as much as her apologies. Which meant basically that they were worth … oh yeah. Nothing.

Kurin snorted and scowled at the linoleum floors. _Idiot,_ she shook her head.

Keta sighed as she watched Kurin pout and brood and scowl at the floor. Kurin always overreacted. Sure she had broken her promise, but … that shouldn't have been a surprise. It's not like she hadn't done it before. And Kurin couldn't really expect her to-

"Hey hoodrat," called an obnoxiously low rumbling voice, interrupting her thoughts. Still a bit dazed, she looked up without thinking and locked eyes with the last person she wanted to see. "What happened to your face? You get jumped in an alley by some old ladies when they saw you trying to graffiti their walkers?"

"Menma," Keta spat the word like it was dirty. "I don't need to explain myself to you."

"Oh yeah?" He smirked. "So you're saying I'm right then?"

Keta scowled and buried her head deeper into her arms. "Go walk off a cliff or something." She muttered angrily. She really wasn't in the mood for this.

"What was that?" He called, catching a few other student's attentions. Keta scowled harder.

"I said," She sat up a little taller in her seat, growling._ "Go jump off a freaking cliff," _It was obvious that Keta was pissed. Extremely pissed.

But it seemed Menma couldn't take a hint.

"Aw, did I make the ditcher mad?" Menma had an amused smirk on his face. The entire class was, once again, completely silent. It was obvious something serious was going on.

Keta looked ready to pop her top. Her eyes were covered by her bangs and the aura coming off her was enough to make even Edo-Hinata shiver. Slowly raising her head, she shot him a death glare that could melt even the most well trained soldiers. Her entire body was literally shaking with rage. _First Kurin ruins my morning, now this stupid shit! Oh hell no! I'm getting real tired of all this shit._

"Why you litt-" before she could finish her death threat, her ringtone went off, saving Menma … for the time being.

Fishing the irritating device out of her pocket Keta angrily swiped the screen, not caring who was on the line. "_WHAT?!_" Her growl reverberated off the class walls, visible shudders going through the students.

Even Kurin felt a bead of sweat drip down her back. _Crap there is no way to stop her now. It was nice knowing you Menma. _

"Oh it's you. What do you want now? I hope you realize you just interrupted an important event." Keta's mood literally did a 360. Raising his eyebrow Menma tried to lean in closer to hear who was on the line, but Iruka decided enough was enough.

"Okay Yoshida Keta, you have gone way to far. First you mock me, ruin my classroom, ditch class for two weeks, come in late, and now you're on the phone in class?! Put the person on speakerphone so we can all hear who you have to talk to in the middle of class."

Getting tired of all his whining, Keta finally relented and did what he said. Clicking the button, the first thing everyone heard was a loud shout of, "KETA-SAMA!" coming out of the phone. The first thought going through their heads was, "Is Keta a babysitter?" and "Who is this whiney kid?"

"What do you want Tobi?"

Surprisingly, Keta wasn't screaming at the mystery man-boy over the phone, rather it looked like she was torn between a smirk and a smile. While the regular students were wondering who he was, Kurin most _definitely_ knew exactly who was on the other line. And she was not pleased to find him calling. There was only one reason Tobi would call Keta during school hours, and that reason didn't mean anything good.

"Keta-sama~ Deidara-san told me to tell you that you need to come where we are in the meeting place or Leader-sama will be mad and Tobi won't be a good boy and Tobi **is** a big boy~!" _Tobi_ kept ranting on and on about Deidara-san and Leader-sama and him being a _good_ boy.

The students were all thinking the same thing, '_does she really hang out with people like that? Maybe she's not so ba – _**CRASH**_ – nevermind._

The seat originally next to Keta was thrown across the room to the whispering students, missing Kiba by a hair. Splinters went flying everywhere. Her annoyance was plain on her face. "Shut up and let me SPEAK!" the line instantly went silent.

"Now Tobi, you tell the others I'll be there in a minute ok? And yes, if you do that then you'll be a very good boy." Tobi squealed, offered a short goodbye and thanks, then the line was cut.

Sighing, the girl stuffed the phone back where it belonged. Lazily stretching her arms above her head, she headed to the door. Kurin was _not_ going to let her go without a fight. No way in hell would she allow her to go anywhere _near_ those wretched people. Grabbing her arm, Kurin sharply jerked Keta around to face her, getting even more peeved by the nonchalant look on the onyx-eyed girl's face.

"Where do you think you're going?" She spat out, giving her friend a glare.

"To hang out with my friends. Why do you ask?" Keta knew Kurin couldn't do anything without exposing their secret. Giving her signature wolfish grin, Keta snatched her arm back and walked out of the room, not giving the fuming girl a chance to answer.

"You'd better get back here afterschool or I won't forgive you!" Kurin called furiously after her. "I'm not going to deal with that crap without you!"

Knowing that her blue-eyed friend was referring to their 'appointment' with Kakashi, she called back with a simple, "Whatever!"

Kurin glared at her friend's retreating figure. "Promise me, you asshole!"

"Yeah, yeah!"

Keta's laughter could be heard throughout the halls, just adding to Kurin's rage. Naruto, seeing the girl shaking – he didn't seem to understand that it was out of anger – quickly ran up to the girl, raising one of his tanned hands to rest on her forehead.

"Oi, Kurin-chan? Are you sick? Your face is really hot. Do you want to go to the nurse? Please don't die!" The stupidity and denseness of this boy was incredible. Despite the tense atmosphere just about everyone in the class had to facepalm at the boy's childish action.

Kurin, already pissed beyond belief at how Keta just left her, barely acknowledged his existence – that is, before he decided putting his forehead against hers would be a better way of checking if she had a fever. She went from being enraged to a blushing fool in a matter of seconds. She got even redder than she had been, looking like a steaming tomato.

Extremely stressed and weak from lack of sleep, Kurin's body couldn't take it anymore. She welcomed the darkness that swam around the edges of her vision and quickly collapsed without any warning at all.

"Oh no! Kurin-chan! KURIN! DON'T DIE!" Naruto frantically ran around her body panicking while the others watched with amused smirks on their faces.

Chiku and Oto, who were enjoying the show immensely, looked from their collapsed friend to the scared blond jackrabbit running hysterically in circles around the room. Having seen the entire ordeal between Keta and Menma, and now Kurin and Naruto, they knew something had to be done. So, sharing a wicked smirk, the duo pushed the blond away and dragged the still steaming girl to the infirmary.

Iruka, still sitting at his desk, looked around the room – if you could even call it that with everything broken and scattered around - with a forlorn expression. _This is going to be the worst year of my life. _Quietly sobbing to himself, he continued to ask himself why he ever wanted to be a teacher in the first place.

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

Kurin opened her eyes and blinked a few times in confusion, her vision blurring a bit before she managed to focus on a figure sitting calmly beside her.

"Chiku," she addressed the apathetic girl beside her, wincing slightly at the bright light of the infirmary. "Please tell me … for the love of all that is good and decent in this world …_please_ tell me that I didn't feint in front of our entire history class and that Keta isn't off playing army with the Akatsuki crowd."

Chiku said nothing, and Kurin groaned. Chiku didn't believe in speaking needlessly, and never said anything unless it was worth saying. Even when she teased Kurin, her words always had an underlying meaning. Something important that had to be said. And this time, Chiku knew she didn't have to say anything so she didn't. The slightly amused look on her face said it all.

"Kuso," Kurin cursed, sitting up slowly and pinching the bridge of her nose to make her headache recede. Her body ached all over and she felt even more tired than she had before she had fallen unconscious. "What time is it?"

"Twenty minutes to the end bell," Chiku said simply, not moving to help Kurin stand. She knew if she tried to help Kurin would argue that she was fine and she really didn't want to fight now. Too troublesome. Then again, almost everything Kurin or Keta did ended up being troublesome. "You've been sleeping for almost two hours."

The purple haired girl tested out her sore limbs gingerly as she walked slowly around the bed to stand in front of Chiku. Chiku sat motionless in a plastic chair next to the bed, looking completely bored, but Kurin knew better. If Chiku didn't care, she wouldn't have stayed by her side to see if she was okay. Despite her blasé expression, her one visible green eye flashed with worry every time Kurin moved and winced, scanning Kurin's body for more injuries.

"Is Keta back yet?" asked Kurin, turning away from Chiku's probing gaze to look at herself in a mirror on the wall. She looked terrible. Her jacket and sweater had been removed, revealing her bruised and beaten body. The tattoos on her left arm that were usually covered up by bulky clothing were now evident, creeping up her arm in a winding pattern of Kanji lettering and stars. On the inside of her wrist she had three coma marks circling each other, Saiken's official symbol. Every member of Saiken was supposed to have one, but Keta and Kurin only made the important permanent members get one. It was the closest thing they had to a contract. Having this symbol permanently inked onto your body meant _I am in this for life_.

Kurin kept hers hidden at all times, covered so no one would see it. In Konoha the symbol was an omen. A bad one. It was graphitized all over the town, marking their territory along with the Sound's symbol, a music note, and the Akatsuki symbol, a single cloud. Anyone who wore the symbols would be taken into police for questioning, so Kurin only let her tattoo show when she had her mask on. When Saiken met up with Akatsuki or Sound she and most of the other members of Saiken wore masks and jackets with the Saiken symbol decorating them, but during normal days they tried to be inconspicuous.

Well, not Keta of course. She was the exception. Chiku's tattoo was on her hip and Oto's was near his collarbone, both almost always totally hidden. But Keta, like the stubborn idiot she was, insisted on getting her tattoo on her right upper arm when she always wore sleeveless clothes. It was huge, too, but no one ever really questioned why it was there. If she was ever asked about it she would laugh and say she got it on a dare, and people believed her because she was Keta and when it was Keta talking, you didn't question these kinds of things. Kurin shook her head and sighed.

There was some dried blood still stuck in her hair.

"No," Chiku answered her question from before as Kurin made her way to the bathroom to make herself look a little less like she was operating on two hours of sleep (the two hours she had just gotten). "But there's still time."

Kurin snorted, digging her eyeliner out of her pocket to conceal the bags under her eyes. "I seriously doubt she'll show up."

"What will you do if she doesn't?"

The blue-eyed girl thought over this question for a moment, beginning to meticulously wash her scratched and dirty hands and face.

Eventually Kurin just shrugged, letting Chiku stare at her back from the other room. "I'll skip it," she replied honestly. Chiku made a small disapproving sound and Kurin ignored it, now combing through her purple hair with her wet fingers.

"You should go even if she skips it," Chiku said after awhile.

"Oh?" Kurin didn't respond much, not looking forward to where this conversation was going.

"Yes," One green eye analyzed Kurin carefully as she returned to the room and put her sweater back on, folding up her jacket. It was dirty anyways. "It would be good for you."

"Why?" She asked, sounding sharper than she'd intended. She waited a beat and asked again, calmer. "Why?"

Chiku's silence stretched so long that the bell actually rang, and Kurin started towards the door without looking back at her.

"I'm going to look for Keta," she said, and paused when she reached the doorway. " … I'm not crazy." She said, for seemingly no reason at all. But Kurin wasn't stupid. She knew what Chiku was thinking, what all of them were thinking.

What they all had been thinking on _that_ day.

Chiku blinked and watched silently as Kurin walked out into the hallway swarming with students. She said nothing and didn't move from her spot on the plastic chair, even after Kurin was long gone. There was nothing to say. If Kurin didn't want to go, she wouldn't, and there was nothing that Chiku could do to convince her otherwise. Well. Actually, there was quite a bit that she _could_ do, but never would.

She could have done what Oto would do and lectured her. She could have copied Keta and pounded some sense into her, arguing until she gave in. She could have told Kurin that she was worried, and that she wanted her to go, not because she thought she was crazy, but because she was afraid she could be eventually. She could have done a lot of things, but in the end Chikushi was Chikushi and saying such unnecessary things wasn't needed for her.

Chiku sighed softly and stood, smoothing out her already wrinkle free skirt and making her way slowly to the door. If she didn't find Oto soon he would worry about her, and she had better things to do than sit in this gloomy place and scrutinize herself.

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

Keta drew back and let another punch fly, landing squarely on the man's nose with a sickening crunch. She laughed, watching the stranger crumple to the ground as he clutched his now bloody nose.

"Oi," someone called from behind her. She turned, a wide grin stretched across her tanned cheeks.

"Puppet man number two," she greeted Edo-Sasori with another one of her colorful nicknames, still smiling wildly.

"Leader-sama says we gotta split," he told her with a grin. "So get ready to run at the signal."

Keta nodded, turning to look at her comrades. Big Emo (Itachi) and Fish Face (Kisame) were fighting back to back, looking deadly in all out serious fight mode. The two idiots (Edo-Itachi and Tobi, bless their stupid little souls) were jumping around like chickens with their heads cut off, somehow still managing to take down Sound members in their silly little race. Potty Mouth (Hidan) and The Atheist (Edo-Hidan) were in the middle of arguing while they slashed Sound lackeys relentlessly. "Janshin is the best!" Hidan would shout and "Worship is for fools!" Edo-Hidan would shout back, just as passionately.

All of her friends were paired off like this. They were having a street fight against a bunch of Sound idiots in the middle of an abandoned Walgreens parking lot. She was paired with Puppet Man Number Two or Pup Two for short. He may have been Sasori's Edo, which meant they were opposites, but strangely enough they both still loved puppets. Pup Two was a lot more fun to fight with, though. Keta loved Puppet Man, but the guy had about as much personality as a paper bag.

"Oi you runts!" Someone, Keta turned to see it was Hidan, was screaming their head off. "The crows are cawing and The Big Bad Red is on the move!"

" … What the hell is that supposed to mean?" called Zipper Face (Edo-Kakuzu) over the crowd.

Potty Mouth huffed. "It means the fucking Uchihas are coming, dumbass, so get a move on already! This is the signal! Run bitches run!"

Everyone scattered.

Keta ran like the wind down the street, hood flying back so her dark hair whipped around her still grinning face. This is what she lived for. These times when she fought alongside her best buds without a care in the world and got to feel some freedom. The only thing that was missing was her other little posse. Oto, Chiku, Kurin …

Keta's eyes got wide and she stopped running, skidding to a halt.

"Shit!" She cried, and started sprinting in the opposite direction. "I'm gonna be late!"

"Keta!" Pup Two called after her as she ran, slowing down. "Where-?"

"I promised the idiot I'd be somewhere by now!" she panted as she ran faster.

"But the Sound and the Uchihas are in that direction!" Pup Two's voice became faint as Keta flew across the pavement.

"Ha!" Keta's sharp laughter could be heard all the way down the street, and the young members of the Akatsuki gang smiled as her figure sped faster and farther away, a small dark dot rushing towards Konoha High school.

They all knew that once Keta got going … nothing could get in her way.

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

"Kuuuuuurrrrriiinnnnn!" Keta was still running even though she felt like her lungs were about to spontaneously combust and split into a million tiny little pieces. Her pale friend turned, blue eyes wide as they took in the sight of her.

"Kay?" Kurin's nickname for her childhood friend slipped out in her surprise.

Keta stopped in front of the shocked girl, doubled over panting. She looked twice as bad as she did when she left. Blood covered her hands and was smeared over her tanned face; she had all kinds of grisly wounds all over her body. She looked like the main character in one of those cheap horror movies where everyone gets murdered in the end.

Kurin shook her head, watching her friend struggle to catch her breath. "I'm not even going to ask what you were doing before you came here."

Keta looked up at Kurin, still gulping air. "I- hah- was h-hoping you'd – heh- say something l-like that- gaahhh," she winced and gripped her stomach, holding back a terrible cramp.

"Did you seriously run all the way here?" Kurin asked, still incredulous.

"Yeh heh yeahhh," Keta stood with a huff. "Impressed?"

Kurin shrugged. "I wasn't expecting you to come at all so, yeah, a little."

"Ahhhh," Keta smirked, still a little breathless. "Man that was rough. But really fun. You should have been there, Kurin, we coulda killed it."

"Yeah, yeah," The purple-headed girl waved a hand dismissively and tugged Keta towards the bathroom. "You can tell me all about the people you punched later. Right now we need to get you clean and go to Kakashi's office before I change my mind and decide not to go at all."

The halls were almost empty as the two girls walked, which Kurin was grateful for. They had enough rumors going on about them already. What would people say if they saw Keta looking like this just before they went to a _therapy_ session?

"Ne Kurin," Keta said, leaning heavily on the pale girl's shoulder as they walked. She was still a bit shaky, so Kurin decided to let her. They weren't really fighting anymore anyways. Keta had shown up in the end. That was enough for her.

"Hn?" Kurin focused on not tripping over Keta's sneakers as she shouldered open the bathroom door.

" … After we do this …"

"Yeah?"

" … Can you get me that Pocky?"

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

"I can't believe we're actually doing this," Keta sighed and shook her head as the troublesome two stood outside Kakashi's office afterschool, waiting impatiently to be let inside. "This is such a joke. Like I have time to play therapy with _Kakashi_." The dark haired girl scoffed. "He'll probably ramble on for an hour about something stupid and send us on our way with copies of Icha-Icha Paradise."

Kurin snorted, but frowned at the same time. She was uncomfortable. She didn't like standing out in front of Kakashi's office like they were, where anyone could see them. It made her feel like she had a problem. Well … she did have a problem, they both did, but she didn't like everyone being able to plainly see that. "Oh will you stop complaining? You're acting like I want to be here. This wasn't my idea."

"But you're the one who made me promise to get back here on time," Keta argued, oblivious to her friend's worries. "Are you telling me all my rushing was for nothing? I could have just skipped it, you know."

Kurin sighed and leaned up against Kakashi's door. "I know. Thanks for bothering to show up. I really didn't expect you to."

"Hn," The tanned girl smirked. "Glad you appreciate what I do for you."

Kurin rolled her eyes but said nothing. She was feeling strangely subdued after the crazy day they'd had. Tired. She guessed the whole 'not sleeping' thing was going to catch up to her eventually; she just wished it had caught up at a more convenient time.

A silence settled over the two girls then, and as Kurin became more uncomfortable she leaned harder against the door, hiding her face under her hair. It looked almost like she was trying to melt into the wall in a very subtle way. Keta remained oblivious, and began her playing one of her favorite games: Scare The Living Hell Out Of Anyone Who Passes By. Kurin sighed as her dark haired friend threw one of her Death Glares at a squeaky little freshman girl, almost making her pee her pants in fear as she ran away wailing.

Kurin was just about to scold her for being so cruel to a complete stranger when suddenly the door she was so heavily leaning on swung open, making her stumble backwards. If she was anyone other than who she was, she would have fallen backwards right onto her butt. However, being Kurin, with years of physical training on her body and plenty of experience stumbling (one could even go as far as to say stumbling was how she walked) she did not fall backwards onto her butt. Instead, she ever so gracefully pushed off from the door as it swung, wiggled, and flopped forwards into Keta.

The girls fell to the floor with a grunt, looking up to scowl at whoever had caused their already sore bodies more pain.

"Yo," as usual, a thin hospital mask covered half of Hatake Kakashi's face as he smiled his half-moon-one-eyed smile down at them. "Sorry I'm late getting here. There was this little old lady who came into the office with this terrible story about how her little kitten got stuck up in a tree, and I just had to help …"

He rambled on lazily, still smiling as the two girls scowled tiredly at him. They really just wanted to go home and sleep.

"Kakashi-sensei?" Keta interrupted sweetly, her voice sticky sweet and strained. "Could you please … just SHUT your masked mouth UP and let us get this over with? Today was the worst day I've had in years and I'm really not in the mood for this crap right now."

"Ah, yes," Kakashi was smiling that smile again. "Gomen, gomen. Step right in and we'll get started."

" … Right," Keta ignored his creepy smile and shouldered past him into the room, flopping down on the couch in front of the desk. Kurin sighed, twirling the piercings in her ear like she always did when she wasn't paying attention.

Kakashi took a seat at his desk and looked over the two girls seriously, "now," he began. "Why don't you start by telling me what the problem is?"

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

"Would you stop blaming me already!?" Kurin screeched, suddenly rising to stand. "I thought we went over this before!"

They had been in Kakashi's office a grand total of three minutes, and they were already yelling. This must have been some kind of record for them.

"Stop yelling, crazy!" Keta stood as well, her expression contorting into a scowl. "Just calm down and let me talk! All I'm saying is that if you hadn't gone and bothered me up on the roof none of this would have happened."

"And_ I'm_ just saying that I wouldn't have had to go get you on the roof if you weren't acting like such a big fat cowardly baby!" Kurin glared, grey-blue eyes flashing with anger. "And don't call me crazy."

Keta grinned her signature wolfish grin and said, "What? You gotta problem, crazy? Did I offend you, huh, did I? What's the problem, crazy, I thought you were in the middle of saying something?"

"Call me crazy … one more time." (4)

"What? Cra-"

Kurin snapped, lunging for Keta's throat while Keta dove at her from the side. Unfortunately for them, their attacks both cut off abruptly when a certain silver haired man rose to stand between them, holding them apart.

"I think I've heard …" Kakashi looked between the two girls in dismay.

"… And seen …quite enough. Why don't we do this one at a time? Tanaka-san, you can go first. Yoshida-san can wait in the front office for you to finish."

"Eh?" Keta blinked at him, horrified. "I have to go wait for Kurin to finish complaining in my crazy abusive grandmother's office? Are you insane? I would rather hang myself by my toenails from a ceiling fan than do that."

"Well," Kakashi said, gently shoving her out of the room. "You'll have plenty of time to do that while you wait, won't you?"

He slammed the door on Keta's face right when she was about to reply, and Kurin just stood there, staring. Had Kakashi just commanded Keta to do something, and forced her to comply?

Kakashi smiled that creepy smile at Kurin, and she shivered. "Take a seat Tanaka-san. I'm sure we're going to be here a while and you'll want to be as comfortable as possible."

Kurin frowned, but did as the man said, sitting stiffly back down on the couch. _Oh Kami_, where her last thoughts before Kakashi reeled her in. _What have I gotten myself into?_

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

**(1) For those of you sad little souls who don't know, Pocky is THE BEST most amazing Japanese candy-ish chocolate biscuit food type thingy in the UNIVERSE. It is beautiful and delicious and addicting … almost as much as that strawberry applesauce …**

**(2) 'Urusanai, rokudenashi!' means 'shut up, asshole!' in Japanese. Don't believe me? … Well go look it up then. **

**(3) Nani is what in Japanese.**

**(4) Has anyone else seen this movie? I just really love that line … I had to steal it. (P.S. the movie is Hancock)**

**Kurin: Yeesh … Kakashi is a creep. Gomen about that. I really do love Kakashi, but he can be pretty devious at times. He'll get better in the next chapter, I swear. Please note: I am NOT a Kaka-sensei hater, he just is a little evil in the beginning. Also, if you're getting bored with this boring chapter, I'm sorrryyyyy but it's necessary for the plot to move forward. The next chappie is action packed so KEEP FRIGGIN READING. Yay. Arigato. **

**Oh. And REVIEW. Do it or I'll send Kaka-sensei over to collect your soul.**

**Keta: Kurin, you're insane. You need to calm down. It's just a story.**

**Kurin: But it's OUR story.**

**Keta: Right, but you go overboard.**

**Kurin: Don't I go overboard about everything, though?**

**Keta: … That's true. I forgot you're crazy.**

**Kurin: Oi! No name-calling. But you are right about the overboard thing … maybe I'll try going underboard sometime …**

**Keta: Yepp. Crazy.**

**Kurin: Maybe I'll even try to snowboard. Or surfboard. Or I'll go to Boarding school and learn how to play Board Games. Like Monopoly … **

**Keta: Oh Kami … don't start with that. We're done now. Ja ne everyone! (that means see you later, fools!)**


	4. Chapter 4

**Kurin: This chapter is full of mommy/daddy issues. Hooray! It's also full of Naru and Menma, so more hooray! **

**Keta: Just start the Chapter.**

**Kurin: Fine party pooper. -_- Here ya go:**

Chapter 4

Kurin stared a Kakashi with a deep scowl on her face, tapping her feet restlessly on the shiny pale green tile floors.

Kakashi stared right back at Kurin, expressionless with his face half hidden behind his mask.

That was the one thing the two had in common: only half of their faces were usually visible. Kakashi constantly wore that mask, and Kurin hid behind the purple spikes of her hair. Kurin wanted to hide behind her hair now, while under Kakashi's intense and scrutinizing gaze. But she refused to avoid his stare, no matter how nervous she felt. She wanted him to know she had nothing to hide, so she kept her head held high and glared at him, looking right into his one lazy eye.

Of course she _did_ have quite a bit to hide, but she didn't want him thinking that.

So she continued to stare, and Kakashi stared right back.

This went on for a very long time. Neither of them spoke, and Kurin was getting a little annoyed. What was that pervert waiting for? For her to talk first? For her to look away? Was this some sort of weird therapy trick? Kurin snorted, finally breaking his gaze to smirk out the window. At least he wasn't asking her how she _felt_.

"Tanaka-san," Kakashi finally began politely. "Why do you think you're in my office today?"

Kurin turned back to look at him, quirking a purple brow. "_Tanaka-san_? Please, Kakashi. I've known you for years. Aren't we past all that by now?"

Kakashi's face became grave for a moment, but then his serious look disappeared and he smiled easily at her. "True, but this is the first time I'm speaking to you as a patient."

Kurin frowned. "So?"

"So," Kakashi's eye curved closed into one perfect half moon. "Let's pretend all that history between us doesn't exist. We're starting over. Tell me about yourself, Tanaka-san. Tell me how you got here."

"Don't be stupid, Kakashi. I'm not interested in telling you my life story. The history exists. It always will, and you know why I'm here."

"Oh?" Kakashi's smile didn't falter. "Well, if that's how you feel, than I have to say I'm disappointed that you're here. Not because I don't enjoy seeing you, Kurin, but because it's under such unfortunate circumstances. I hoped I'd never have you as one of my patients, but I can't say I didn't see it coming …"

Kurin said nothing, and sat very still while she waited for him to continue.

"I was a close friend of your parents," He went on quietly. "You know that. And you know that Sarutobi put me in charge of checking up on you and Keta not only because I was close by working here at the school, but because he trusted me. Your parents trusted me."

At the mention of her parents, Kurin stopped breathing.

Kakashi continued as if he didn't notice, though she knew he did. "There was another reason, though. Your parents … both of them … were patients of mine. Did you know that?"

Kurin's throat became so tight she couldn't swallow. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't blink. _Shut up, _she begged desperately in her head. _Please for once just shut up. Shut up, shut up, shut up!_

But Kakashi didn't shut up. He kept pushing her, and went on. "That's actually how they met, through me. Your father was one of my best friends, but he had serious Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder. And your mother was such a kind woman, so funny. But she was conflicted with severe bouts of depress-"

"Kakashi," her voice shook and her hands dug into the fabric of the couch, making her fingers burn. They still hadn't healed much from this morning's fight. "Why are you telling me this?"

Kakashi's smile grew … or what she assumed to be a smile. Kurin wanted to claw it off of his stupid masked face. "They were both scientists working in similar fields, so I thought it would be good if they met. I introduced them, but I had no idea they would eventually get married and have a child. And then The Accident happened … and they weren't around anymore to look after you. I've always thought of you as extended family, Kurin," Kakashi's clothed smile became small and soft, the most honest expression Kurin had ever seen on his face. Or what she could see of his face. "You and Keta both. Before The Accident, your parents were so close … we were all good friends. Kushina, Minato, your parents, Keta's. Yoshida Haeto and Yoshida Meio. Tanaka Sakiko and Tanaka Minori. They-"

"Kakashi," Kurin's tone was warning, but again Kakashi ignored her.

"You got those blue eyes form Minori," he switched topics a little, now going on to describe her parents, "and the purple hair from Sakiko. She used to complain about it all the time; she hated how unruly it always was. Your father loved it, though, so she kept it long. He was blonde. Well, you've seen the pictures … Sakiko loved to sing. She would sing all day, all the time, and Minori would always complain. But he told me once he secretly loved her singing. She had the most beautiful voice, your mother did. She also-"

"Kakashi!" The pale girl couldn't take it anymore and she stood up, tears welling in her eyes. But she didn't cry. No, crying would be like giving up. Crying would mean Kakashi won. Kurin didn't believe in crying, especially not in front of other people. Waste of energy and time. "Enough! I know most of what you're telling me already, and I don't really care to hear it again. I didn't come here to talk about my parents. They're dead. They don't matter anymore."

"Kurin," Kakashi said, disapproving. "They were your parents. Of course they matter."

When she didn't answer him he continued softly, carefully, as he watched her sniff and rub at her watery eyes. Kurin wiped the tears away and settled a scowl on her face. No crying.

"You said that you didn't want to tell me your life story," the silver haired man said, "and you told me I already knew why you were here. So I assumed you wanted _me_ to tell_ you_."

"I don't," Kurin spat, still standing. "That's not even why. That has nothing to do with this. Nothing to do with what's happening now."

"What is happening now?"

"I'm listening to you spout a bunch of crap about my parents."

"Why?"

"Because I don't know if you noticed, Kakashi, but this is a freaking _therapy _session."

"And that's a bad thing?"

"YES," Kurin began pacing behind the couch, running her hands through her hair in exasperation. "It's a very bad thing. Therapy is for crazy people. Sad people. Broken people. I'm not any of those things."

"Then why are you here?" Kakashi sat back in his chair and looked up at her, voice still even and clam. Kurin's hands visibly shook as she shoved them in her pockets and glared back at him.

"Because I have to be," she leveled her gaze with his and spoke with acid on her tongue. "Because I keep getting into stupid situations and I keep making stupid mistakes and Tsunade said I have to fix that."

"Fix it, huh?"

"Yes," Kurin stopped pacing by the window and sighed, looking out at the almost empty parking lot. That was the funny thing about schools. They were so full during the day, but as soon as the bell rang they became ghost towns. _Guess I'm not the only one who doesn't want to be here,_ she thought bitterly, looking back to scowl at Kakashi once more.

"Tell me, Kurin," he said, locking eyes with her again. "When something is broken, what do you do?"

Kurin scoffed. "What is this, third grade? What are you-?"

He held up a hand to silence her. "Just answer."

"You fix it," she rolled her eyes and smirked at Kakashi like he was dumb. But then she let the question sink in, and what she said before … _oh_.

She had said that therapy was for broken people, and then said that she wasn't broken and didn't need to be there. But then, in a way, she had just admitted that she _was_ broken.

Kakashi had tricked her.

She opened her mouth to argue, but no words formed. She was speechless. What could she say to that? Kakashi watched her struggle and fail to fight back, and sighed softly when she began stomping towards the door.

"We'll continue this conversation next time," he said as she practically kicked open his office door. "Will you send Keta in?"

Kurin grunted and walked away from him, still stomping.

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

While waiting for her friend to emerge from the crazy room, Keta was dozing off by the wall when the door was thrown open, startling Keta in the process. Knowing it was merely her friend in angry mode, Keta simply ignored her.

Storming out of the room, Kurin immediately headed towards her dark haired companion and seized her arm. You could practically see the steam coming out of her ears. Understanding what the problem was, Keta didn't start any fights. She sat and waited patiently for Kurin to say what she needed to say.

"That irritatingly stupid bastard!" Kurin cried, throwing her arms up in the air in a gesture of defeat and annoyance.

Pushing her friend into Kakashi's room Kurin marched towards the office doors, still steaming. "You deal with this crazy fool! I can't take it anymore!" Keta calmly watched Kurin open and slam the door leading to the hall.

With a sigh, Keta closed the door and sat in the 'crazy people chair' as she liked to call it. While keeping up her calm façade Keta leaned back into the couch, getting as comfortable as possible, all the while keeping up the staring contest with Kakashi.

But after about five minutes of staring Keta was getting impatient. Grunting and shifting her gaze to the window she refused to be the one to break the silence. Kakashi always did this. He waited until she got uncomfortable and tricked her into spilling the beans. She predicted this is why Kurin stormed out so early.

_Oh no, I will _not_ be giving in that easy._

It went on like that for at least ten minutes before Keta was sure she would rip the mask on his face and force him to talk. Though that's not how you're supposed to treat one of the few people you call family.

"_Keta, come meet your new friend. Her name is Tanaka Kurinkitafu." A woman who looked like she was in her late twenties smiled and shook her head when she saw what her daughter was doing._

"_I don't need any friends, they're all stupid! Leave me alone!" a five-year-old black haired girl, covered in mud, sat in the grass poking a dead squirrel. Picking the child up the woman lightly dusted the dirt off of her face while subtly pushing the squirrel away with her foot._

"_Now Keta, I told you that you shouldn't mess with the dead. Let it rest in peace." Lightly tapping the girl's head, she brought her back to the yard. "You need a friend Keta. They aren't just a nuisance. Besides, you know the Tanaka's. Don't you like them?"_

"_But Mommy, I don't anyone else. I have you and daddy and the animals and you'll always be with me, right mommy? We'll always be together!" With one last squirm, she broke free from her mother's clutches and ran to the front yard where her new companion would be. "But if it makes you happy, I'll do it for you!"_

_Running up to greet the Tanaka's, Keta didn't catch the sad but knowing frown that grew on her mother's face._

_Stop thinking of that! It doesn't even matter! _She closed her eyes.

Taking a deep breath, she closed the door to her surfacing memories, locked the door and threw it into a dark abyss. Then, realizing she was showing weakness she quickly snapped her eyes back open, hoping Kakashi hadn't figured out what had just happened in her head.

From the look in his eye, he had. He most _definitely_ had. Crap.

Wanting to get it over with before Kakashi did what he did best – mess with people's heads – Keta finally spoke and started the conversation.

"Oi, Kaka-sensei, can I just go? There is no reason for me to be here at all." Running her fingers through her hair, she gave off a wave of indifference, while in her head she hoped he would just let her go.

"Now are you sure there is no reason for you to be here? No reason at all?" Raising his eyebrow, Kakashi seemed to be waiting for something. Something that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on edge.

"Of course I don't need to be here! This is the crazy house!" Deciding not to wait for his reply, Keta got off of the couch, practically tipping it over in the process. She really didn't like the look he was giving her.

"This so-called 'crazy house' is where Tsunade has sent you. Do you think she would do that without good reason? Perhaps she thinks you have problems. That is why people come here in the first place."

"I don't need to be here! This place is for the weak. The frail minded. Depressed people. People who are broken come here." Kakashi smirked a little when she said this, which only made Keta angrier. "I am _not_ broken! I'm not a toy to be fixed or some picture you can tape back together. Nobody asked for your help. _I am __**fine**_!" She practically growled at the end of her rant before realizing she's said too much. Once again she could see the smirk under his stupid mask.

"Ugh! Why can't you just leave me _alone_?! No wonder Kurin stormed out! This sucks and I don't need this. I'm out of here." Not waiting for any retort or reply, Keta kicked the door open and stormed out into the hallway.

"Hmm, ten minutes. That has got to be a record for those two. I didn't think they'd last that long. They really have issues." Reaching under his desk to get his book he found a note. Picking it up and reading it, he grinned. "Those two never change."

_Hey you perverted freak! _

_We stole that book you love for making us go crazy. _

_It's just a little revenge._

_The devil's right hand girls,_

_Keta and Kurin_

_P.S. you need to find a new hiding place._

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

Kurin stood out in the middle of the hallway, pacing angrily as she waited for Keta to get out so they could go. She wondered vaguely about what Kakashi was asking her as music from one of her favorite bands – My Chemical Romance – blasted in her ears.

When she listened and realized which song was playing she scoffed. Usually when she listened to music, she found ways to make to lyrics match her mood, but this was just ridiculous.

…_What will it take to show you that it's not the life it seems?_

_(I'm not okay)_

_I've told you time and time again you sing the words but you don't know what it means _

_(I'm not okay)_

_To be a joke and look, another line without a hook_

_I held you close as we both shook for the last time take a good hard look!_

_I'm not okay_

_I'm not okay_

_I'm not okay_

_You wear me out_

_Forget about the dirty looks_

_The photographs your boyfriend took_

_You said you read me like a book, but the pages are all frayed_

_I'm okay_

_I'm okay!_

_I'm okay, now_

_(I'm okay, now)_

_But you really need to listen to me_

_Because I'm telling you the truth_

_I mean this, I'm okay!_

_(Trust me)_

_I'm not okay_

_I'm not okay_

_Well, I'm not okay_

_I'm not o-fucking-kay_

_I'm not okay_

_I'm not okay_

_(Okay?)_

When the song finished Kurin couldn't stop the smirk that crept onto her face. How stupid. When she saw the door to Kakashi's office opening, she took her earplugs out and tucked them into her backpack as Keta sauntered over. Kurin narrowed her eyes at her dark haired companion suspiciously. Keta looked way too pleased with herself to be coming out of _Kakashi's_ office. She must have done something.

"What-?"

Before Kurin had a chance to even finish her question, Keta explained it all when she held up a tiny orange book up in the air proudly. Icha-Icha Paradise.

"You took it," Kurin smirked widely. She bumped fists with Keta in quick congratulations for her resourceful mischievousness. "Amazing. What should we do with it this time?"

Keta looked down at the little book in evil contemplation. "Hmm … I think we should glue it to the roof of his office tomorrow morning."

Kurin laughed stridently at this. "Ahh, man! That's gotta be the best idea you've had so far. It'll be torture for him to sit there and stare at it all day without being able to read it."

Keta laughed with her. "I know right? I'm genius."

Kurin rolled her eyes at that, but still laughed. They started walking towards the exit as Keta rambled on about ideas for messing with Kakashi more.

"… And then we can even glue the pages together so her can't open it," she said.

Kurin shook her head. "Too much work. We should just wet the pages so he can't read them."

"Ohh good idea. That would be better. And we should put it right above his desk so if it ever falls, it lands right on his head. Ha."

As she said this, Keta looked over Kurin's shoulder and saw a blur of blonde creeping towards them. With a wicked smirk, she decided to keep quiet about her discovery. Little did she know that the mischievous glint in Kurin's eyes wasn't just from snatching Kakashi's book. It came from the flash of crimson eyes she saw hovering behind her dark haired companion.

Both girls jumped in surprise as they were simultaneously attacked by none other than the two Uzumaki boys.

"Hi Kurin-chan!" Naruto beamed as he made himself at home, his arm draped around her neck. Kurin's face quickly flushed a deep red and she squirmed nervously in his clutches as Keta began her usual arguing banter with Menma.

"I never knew you were such a pervert, Hoodrat." Menma teased, leering at the book in her hands.

"And I didn't know you were so obnoxious, playboy," Keta shot back, elbowing him roughly in the chest. "Oh wait. I did already know that. Never mind."

Menma smirked. "You have a mind?"

"Yeah, I do. And it's bigger than yours."

"I doubt anything you have is bigger than mine …" He shot her a toothy grin, and Keta scowled, but a tinge of pink crept over her cheeks.

"Shut up," she grimaced, crossing her arms. "Nobody here wants to listen to your ego. Especially not when it comes to something like that. You know, something that doesn't exist."

Menma scoffed and got close to her, ghosting his breath on her neck and making her jerk back, cheeks almost glowing red through her tan skin.

"Are you sure _nobody _here wants to hear about my ego?" Menma laughed and Keta scowled harder, turning to get Kurin so she could leave. When she looked over at her, Kurin was still trapped in Naruto's glomp-hug, listening to the one and only blonde idiot babble on about something.

"… And then we saw Chikushi-san and Oto by the entrance and I wondered why they were still at school just standing around, and they said that they were waiting for you guys to get out of Kakashi's office, and that we should check on you to see what was taking so long 'cause you only have one car so they couldn't really leave without you, ya know? And then Menma said it was a waste of time 'till Chikushi-san gave me the best idea. Guess what it was."

Kurin blinked at him over her shoulder, still blushing and squirming a little. "What?"

"She said that we should take you two out! And that you couldn't refuse because she'd burn your sketchbook - or something like that - if you did." The blue-eyed boy retorted, still grinning and ignoring the look of terror on Kurin's face.

"So how does that affect me in any way?" Keta was already pulling out her phone.

"Who the hell are you calling?" Kurin broke out of her trance when she saw who her friend planned on calling.

Waving the phone in Kurin's face, Keta calmly snatched it back before the pale girl could get a hold of it. "I'm calling Deidara to pick me up. If Oto and Chiku think I'm spending my day with the likes of you three nut jobs then they're crazy. Besides, it's not like they have anything on me-"

"Actually, Oto said that if you try and get away to tell you he'd hide your Uzi. By the way … what's an Uzi?" Naruto interrupted what Keta was trying to say with a wide grin.

Gritting her teeth together Keta cursed her brother to the deepest darkest pits of hell. "Rokudenashi! He knows that's my favorite!" Muttering to herself about how evil Otonashi was and ignoring Kurin's laughter, Keta turned around and headed towards the parking lot.

"Oi Hoodrat, where are you going?" Menma asks as he quickly flanks her right side.

"To the parking lot dumbass, unless you expect me to walk wherever it is we're going. Oi, blondie! Let's go! I don't have all day you know." Glancing behind her at the faraway look on her friend's face, "Kurin, get your idiotic head out of the clouds." Turning back, she didn't wait for them to catch up and walked outside.

Naruto ran up to whisper in Menma's ear, "You look like you like her."

Turning around quickly to slap him on the head Menma practically growled in his ear, "You look like you like Hoodrat's right hand girl over there." He pointed at the purple haired girl who had a dazed expression on her face and looked like she hadn't heard any of the conversation. "Just go get her and let's go."

Hearing a crash from the lot and a yell of 'Hurry up or I'm going to wreck everything out here and blame it on you slow losers' the raven haired boy quickly walked to the exit and outside to calm the impatient demon.

Rubbing the back of his head Naruto muttered to himself about violent brothers and why he had to be stuck with him. He glanced over at Kurin who still had a faraway look in her eyes and approached her, waving a hand in her face. Nothing. Clapping his hands in her face? Nothing. So with a shrug of his shoulders he put one of his arms under her legs and the other on her back and hoisted her up, princess style.

As she was being carried Kurin woke up a little, shaking her head to clear the thoughts of a tanned, purple-haired, blue-eyed baby. She blinked. Then she did it again. And just to be sure, she did it a third time. Yup, she was definitely in the arms of the blondie in her thoughts.

_Wait, I'm in Naruto's arms. _

_I'm in Uzumaki Naruto's arms. _

_Uzumaki Naruto is carrying _me.

So she blinked once more. And at least five times after that. _3, 2, 1…_

"EEEEEEEEP!" Jumping out of his arms and somehow not falling on her ass, Kurin ran out to the parking lot. From the grunt of annoyance he heard, Naruto assumed she had jumped on Keta.

Still standing in the hallway with his arms open, Naruto – being the idiot that he is – just shrugged it off and headed towards the screaming girls.

"What the hell Kurin! Back off!" Keta tried to pry off the annoyingly tight hold her companion had around her neck, which seemed to be constricting even tighter by the minute. Getting tired of the obnoxious display, Keta bended her head and bit down on Kurin's hand. _Hard_.

"OW!" Jumping off Keta to nurse her bleeding arm Kurin sent a glare towards Keta. "You just bit me!"

Pulling her hood back up, Keta gave Kurin a look of indifference, ignoring the two boys staring at her back. "I told you to get your irritating butt off of me but you didn't listen. Don't whine to me about something you could've prevented."

Kurin would've disregarded her if it weren't for the challenging tone in her voice.

With a huff Kurin stormed towards her hooded friend. "Well you didn't have to bite me! Because of you I can seriously get rabies!" Kurin smirked at Keta and refused to back down, even after seeing her eyes glint wickedly.

"It's not my fault you jumped me after flirting with your boyfriend over there." Keta pointed to the blond, shrugging off the rabies comment. "If you're having boy troubles, why don't you tell Chiku? I'm sure she'll have a _lot_ to say about this one." Keta smirked when she saw that she obviously hit the nail right on the head. "Aww, does little Kurin not want to talk about her problems?" Seeing the undiluted anger, annoyance, and embarrassment in her friend's eyes, Keta practically glowed with the newest challenge.

"Yeah, like you can talk. You're the one who's always arguing with her boyfriend Mr. Tall Dark and Mysterious." Kurin gestured angrily towards Menma who had raised a brow in curiosity at what the girls were going to do now. "Why don't you two admit it already that you're in love with each other and get it over with?" _Hah, now _I've _hit the nail right on the head._

For a minute Keta looked absolutely livid, but a second later her eyes glinted with something Kurin definitely didn't like. Her canines were glossy in the light with the wicked grin she sported. No, Kurin wasn't going to like this.

"Oh, well what happened about… oh who was it? Edo-Gaara? Weren't you two the perfectly creepy couple? Everyone thought for sure you two were dating. Honestly, I was waiting for Temari to kill you when you weren't paying attention."

The two girls paced around each other in circles looked like wrestlers about to fight.

"Me and Edo-Gaara?!" Kurin exclaimed, incredulous. "That's crazy! We're just friends! Besides, if anyone was secretly going out it would be you and Kankuro. You two were always together!" Still circling, the two didn't pay any attention to the few students who were out late, looking for entertainment, and started to form a circle surrounding them. They were even oblivious to the bets being place on who would win.

"Oh, that's just wrong! _Me_ and Kankuro?! One: that is disgusting, Two: We're good friends and Three: Did you not know that the man is gay?"

Stopping their match, Kurin let the words sink in.

"Wait, he's gay?!"

Rolling her eyes at the incredulous look on Kurin's face she continued, "Of course he is. It's pretty obvious. Only someone without eyes couldn't see it. And apparently the small space in your head is out of use."

Ignoring the last comment Kurin had to make sure what she was hearing was true.

"HE'S GAY?!"

Rolling her eyes once again, Keta slapped Kurin on the back of her head. "YES BAKA. I'm not going to tell you again. Why do you think he refused to go on those blind dates you always tried to put him on?"

She shrugged and frowned, stuffing her hands into her pockets. "I thought he was just picky or something. I dunno. Wow. I feel really stupid. He's gay …"

"You should feel stupid," Keta shook her head. "Idiot."

Kurin scowled at her for a moment, mulling over whether she wanted to continue their fight or not, but ultimately she decided she wasn't in the mood anymore. So instead of answering she pushed her way out of the small crowd that had gathered around them and walked towards the main road.

"Wait …" Naruto's blond brows furrowed in confusion. "Is the fight over? That was hardly a fight at all- itai!" He was cut off by a sharp hit to the back of the head. "Menma, what was that for?"

"You sound like you wanted them to fight, idiot." Menma crossed his arms and followed after Kurin, the small crowd parting for him as he went.

"Maybe I did …" Naruto mumbled at no one, lagging behind the rest of the group.

"Oi, Kurin, where do you think you're going?" Menma's sharp voice cut through the chattering of the crowd.

"To get a ride, of course." And at the end of that sentence she smashed the window of a blue Buffalo, making shattered glass rain down onto the pavement.

"Whoa! What the hell are you doing?!" Coming up behind Kurin and grabbing her fist, he shook it in front of her face.

"Getting a ride …" Kurin gave him a funny look, "or did you not just hear me answer that question?"

Keta rolled her eyes at the stupid squabble in front of her. "Yo Kurin! You can't just steal this car! What is wrong with you?!" Walking over to the red Buffalo beside the two she smashed her fist into the window, mimicking Kurin's actions. "You have to get the _red_ one. Have I taught you nothing? If you're going to steal something, make it red. Like blood."

Kurin laughed while ignoring the disturbed looks she got from Naruto and Menma. Yanking her fist back Kurin calmly walked to the drivers side before Keta put a hand on her shoulder.

"…"

Saying nothing, Keta turned Kurin around and pointed to the other side. "You can't drive. Go away."

"But Keta!" Kurin whined. She was a terrible driver, but she loved to do it anyways. Keta never let her, of course, but she still tried. "You never let me drive~ how bout just this one time? Please? If they see my driving Naruto and Menma won't bother us anymore~"

Rolling her eyes at Kurin's griping, Keta thought it over. On one side, she could die. On the other, Naruto and Menma would leave her alone …

Letting Kurin drive seemed like the best choice out of the two.

"Okay, but just this once. Remember what happened when I let you drive home from Ariku's with those bombs in the back seat?" Ariku was their close friend … who also happened to not only be in Saiken, but was also their weapons provider. She was definitely one interesting character …

"But the explosions were awesome!" Kurin countered with her hands in the air for added effect. "You know you loved them."

"… Yeah, they were pretty cool weren't they? I don't get why that woman was so upset about her car. It wasn't even a good model. If she had a smaller car, or a *cough cough* motorcycle, it wouldn't have blasted into her living room. And killed her dog …"

Kurin shrugged, swinging the door open and making herself at home in the driver's seat. Then she got to work hot-wiring the car, working quickly and easily. "At least we didn't hit that baby in the next room."

"We would have been doing her a favor," Keta walked around the car and slipped into the passenger's seat with a smirk. "She had like six kids, and it was one ugly baby …"

The two laughed loudly together and looked out the smashed window at the Uzumaki boys who still hadn't moved, frozen in horror by their unsettling conversation topic.

"Oi," Keta shot them her signature wolfish grin. "Are you two getting in, or what?"

" … Uh," Menma tilted his head to the side and shrugged one shoulder, not bothering to ask any questions.

"Sure."

He got into the back seat and Naruto got in right after him, starting his usual babbling.

"You guys are great," Naruto beamed, watching Kurin rev the engine. "I hardly ever know what you're talking about, but whatever it is, it's almost always really funny. You know, it's-"

Keta interrupted him with a sly smile. "Please keep your hands, feet and all other appendages inside the vehicle at all times. And please, don't pee yourselves. This isn't our car, you know?"

Naruto made a face. "What? What's that supposed to-"

"You ready, Kurin?" Keta smirked, grabbing onto the safety handle.

"Are you?" Kurin looked at the seatbelt resting by Keta's side, not around anything at all. "You aren't wearing a seatbelt. Isn't that dangerous?" Sharing a look the two laughed, then simultaneously they fist bumped, "Nah. Besides, I'm not wearing one either."

"Wait …" the blond whiskered boy leaned forward to question them, but was cut off by Kurin kicking the gas. They took off with Naruto's cry of "Bwahh!"

The crowd watched the four teenagers fly out of the parking lot, hearing the resounding yell of 'WHOO HOO!' from Keta. Kiba came forward with his dog still perched on his head. "Wait… are they going to be okay with those two crazies?"

Shikamaru scoffed lazily and walked towards the school with a dismissing wave, "Depends, which crazies are you talking about?"

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

Speeding down the street, at least ten miles above the speed limit, Kurin ran through yet another stoplight with a manic laugh. "HA!"

"K-Kurin-c-chan!" Naruto gasped. "C-could you please s-slow down?"

Keta barked out a laugh as they jolted roughly over a speed bump. Kurin wasn't even on the road anymore. Now she was just swerving around an almost empty parking lot. "Where are we even going?"

Menma, who had been fairly quiet until then, trying to keep down his lunch, spoke up. "Shouldn't we go somewhere to eat?"

"Ohh!" Keta exclaimed in delight. "You know what I'm bout to say, right Kurin?"

Kurin jerked the steering wheel to the right, tearing towards Main Street. "Ichiraku Ramen is the place to be!" She hollered, sticking her hand out the window to flip the bird at all the disapproving stares they were getting from people on the streets.

"You know it!" Keta laughed as she was thrown against the side of the car in another one of Kurin's nasty turns.

"Did you say ramen?" Naruto seemed to perk up at the mention of Ichiraku's. "I _love_ ramen!"

Menma rolled his eyes.

"What?" Keta inquired, seeing Menma's exasperated countenance. "Who doesn't love ramen?"

"It's not that I don't love it," Menma shot Naruto an accusatory glance, "it's that he loves it too much."

Naruto pouted, glad to have some dialogue to distract him from Kurin's erratic driving. "So what? Ramen is the best."

"Amen to that!" Kurin screeched gleefully, still caught up in her driving high. Keta shook her head but couldn't keep the smile off her face. She would never admit it … but so far … she was having a lot of fun.

"Yeah well it's fine if you have some every few days or whatever, but he has it everyday, all the time, for practically every meal. He takes ramen-loving too far."

A puzzled look crossed the pale purple haired girl's face as she drove. "What do you mean?"

"What do I mean?" Menma's scowl returned. "I mean, who the hell does that? Who has ramen for every damn meal? It's not normal."

"I do," Kurin said without hesitation.

"Me too," Keta added, quirking a brow at the dark haired boy. "Ramen is life."

Menma stared at the two girls in shock for a moment before he scowled again, grumbling, "Well you're not normal, so you don't count."

Keta shot him her wolfish grin, not at all offended. "Us? Normal? Please. Who needs that ordinary nonsense?"

The crimson-eyed (1) boy rolled his eyes at her and groused, "Why am I surrounded by crazy people?" before Kurin made a sharp twist to the left and sped past another stop sign.

"Oi!" She called, slowing down a bit (not much, but still) "If you're done flirting, I forget which way it is from here. Where do I turn?"

Keta frowned at the mention of flirting, but shouted out "Right!" nonetheless.

Kurin started to turn, jerking the wheel in the usual way, but stopped and yanked in the other direction when Naruto yelled, "Left!"

"What the hell?" Kurin didn't let up on the gas, and didn't let go of the wheel as she questioned the idiots in the car. This resulted in the car rolling around the quiet intersection in a high-speed doughnut as Keta and Naruto argued over which way to go.

"Left!"

"Right!"

"I know where we are, and it's left!"

"What are you saying, idiot? It's right! We're behind the Yamanaka Flower shop, which means it's down the street to the right!"

"No! We are behind the Flower shop, but right next to it is Amaguriama (2), and across from that is Ichiraku's. Which is to the left!"

Keta blinked and scowled, short dark hair flying all around her head as they spun around and around, until finally she relented. "Left. Go left."

"_Thank _you," Kurin huffed and nearly flipped the car over when she broke the doughnut. "Kami knows how long I could've kept that up." She continued to gun it all the way down the street after she made a quick left and smiled when she saw the Ichiraku ramen sign hanging over the street.

"We have arrived!" the pale girl announced, rolling to a stop and parking crookedly in an empty space next to Ichiraku's. Kurin and Keta loved Ichiraku's. When the little shop first opened it had merely been a ramen stand, but due to it's wild popularity and irresistibly delicious ramen, it had expanded over the years. Now they even had some workers who waited tables.

"See?" Keta smirked. "I told you it was left."

Menma rolled his red eyes again with a shake of his head. "Right."

Naruto jumped out of the shiny red Buffalo as soon as they stopped moving. Stumbling to his knees with relief, he smiled. "Thank Kami. I'm alive," warily, he shot a look over at Kurin who was now calmly getting out and grabbing her bag from the back seat. "Kurin-chan, remind me to never let you drive my car. It's a miracle you didn't scratch this one. You are gonna put it back, right?"

Kurin raised her eyebrows at him, holding out a hand to help him up. "Wait a second. Are you telling me you have a car?"

Naruto tilted his head to the side, confused. "Of course I do. I thought you knew that."

Kurin snatched back her hand, facepalming with a violent shake of her head. "No, baka, I did not. I wouldn't have stolen a damn car to drive here if I had."

"Wait, what?" Keta scoffed when she heard this. "Are you telling me I went through Kurin's horrible driving for nothing? You two had a car this whole time?"

"Actually," the blonde boy clarified, "_I _have a car. An orange viper. Menma has a motorcycle."

" …"

Keta's eyes became wide and she looked over at Menma in shock. Kurin winced when she saw her dark haired friend's reaction. Motorcycle was Keta's trigger word. She was obsessed with them. She had always wanted one, but Kurin, like the concerned (and evil) friend she was, prevented her from indulging on her crazy motorcycle fantasies in order to 'maintain practicality'. Or whatever that meant.

"DID YOU. JUST. SAY. MOTORCYCLE?"

The dark haired boy took a step back carefully, watching Keta like she might explode at any moment. For all he knew, she could. "Uh … yeah?"

"Holy shit," the onyx eyed girl said, walking up to him. "That is … really cool. I think I might hate you a little less now."

Menma's eyebrows shot up and his mouth fell open, shocked.

Keta smirked and patted him lightly on the shoulder. "Though, it all really depends on your answer to my next question: what color is it?"

His red eyes glowed for a moment and his mouth snapped shut as he recalled something she had said before. "Red," his smirk returned full force. "Like blood."

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

"Hello, my name is Ayame and I'll be your- oh." A young woman with dark brown hair and dark eyes stood smiling at them from where they now sat in the ramen shop. "Keta, Kurin. Haven't seen you guys around in a while. Oh!" Her polite smile grew even wider when she saw the girls' company. "And I see you came in with our other favorite customers. Hello Naruto, Menma. Should I get you all the usual?"

"Yepp!" replied the blond boy with a grin. "I'll have two misos with katsudon please."

Ayame smiled and looked to Menma, who was busy scowling next to him. "Just get me what he ordered. But put some Menma in it."

Naruto rolled his eyes at this. "Really? Menma? You order the same thing every time. And Menma is gross anyways."

The dark haired whiskered boy opened his mouth to snap at his friend, but was cut off by Keta loudly announcing her order. "I'll get three misos. One with Kakuni, another with scallions and the last topped with Chashu."

Now it was Kurin's turn to scowl. "You're not going to finish all that. You never do."

Keta shrugged. "Sometimes I do."

"Whatever," the purple haired girl sighed and smiled weakly at Ayame. Kurin was still coming down from her joy ride high. "Since everybody else got miso I'll get something else. Tonkotsu, please. Easy on the pepper and heavy on the beni shoga."

"Alright," Ayame finished jotting down the orders and bowed slightly. "I'll be back in a minute with your orders and some waters."

"Do you not like miso?" asked Naruto conversationally after a short and slightly awkward silence.

Kurin flashed him a small smile from where she sat across from him. "Oh no, I do, I just wanted something different, ya know?"

The blue-eyed boy grinned and said, "Yeah, I get like that sometimes, but miso is my ultimate favorite."

"Yeah it's pretty much all me and Keta buy. When we go shopping for food all you see in the cart is ramen, Pocky, ramen, Pocky. And milk. Chocolate and regular."

"You like Pocky too?" If possible, Naruto's fox-like grin got even wider.

"Who doesn't like Pocky?" Keta drawled, sounding bored. "What a stupid question."

"Oi," Kurin scowled and smacked Keta quickly upside the head. The dark haired girl blinked widely at her pale friend, surprised. Kurin usually didn't hit her first. "Be nice. This is supposed to be a date, you know."

Keta's obsidian eyes narrowed as she rubbed the back of her now sore head. "It's a forced date. We're here against our wills. I don't have to enjoy myself or be nice if I don't want to."

"Well," Kurin's voice dropped to a mumble. "What's so bad about being nice just because?"

The tanned girl snorted, slouching against the back of their booth. "Coming from you, that's rich. You're never nice. Oh, but I suppose you want to be on your best behavior for little Naru-chan, right?" Keta scoffed. "Well I don't need to impress anybody, especially not Menma so-"

"Ha!" Before Kurin could interrupt Keta's ranting, Menma beat her to it. "Me and Naruto never said who was asking who out on the date. You just assumed it was me. You like me."

"Don't be ridiculous. Of course I assumed it was you. You're the one who's always bugging me."

Menma's smirk just grew. "I wouldn't bug you if you didn't like me."

"Please," Keta sneered. "Don't flatter yourself. A lot of people bug me."

"Yeah?" Menma's smirk became sharp, like a dagger cutting through his cheeks. "Do a lot of people bug you enough to make you skip school to avoi-"

"OH!" Kurin suddenly said very loudly, pointing over the table to block Menma's smirking face from Keta's view. "Look! Our food is here. I'm starving."

Keta glared intensely at the raven-haired boy as he was handed his ramen by Ayame, but said nothing about his unfinished comment, more for Kurin's sake than anything else. She could tell how much Kurin wanted this date to go well, even if she would never admit it. So she began slurping up her ramen silently with a scowl on her face.

They all ate in a tense silence for a while before, yet again, Naruto got a conversation going.

"So where do you guys wanna go after this?"

Naturally, Kurin answered since the other two of the party were still sulking. "You guys wanna go out for dessert? We could go to the park and stop at an ice cream stand or something."

"Yeah, that's a great idea," Naruto's smile came back full force at her almost timid suggestion.

Keta scoffed silently. If Kurin couldn't tell that the blonde boy was head over heels for her, she really was an idiot. Every time she talked he leaned forward in his seat and stopped eating to stare at her with that huge goofy smile on his face. He looked like some sad lovesick puppy. Apparently Menma was thinking the same thing, because Keta heard him snort into his ramen with a shake of his head. For a second their eyes met, black on red, and Keta casually rested her head on her hand, flipping him the bird against her cheek with a sly smirk. The dark haired boy bit back a laugh and Keta rejoined the conversation, content with her tiny act of revenge … for now.

"I'd rather get Dangos," Keta said, pushing her empty bowl away from her.

Her purple haired friend pouted. "But I like ice cream better."

"And I like you better when you shut your face," Keta retorted, stretching lazily. "We're getting Dangos."

"I think we should vote on it," Naruto suggested.

Keta sighed and frowned. "Fine, fine, but even if everyone else wants ice cream, I'm still getting Dangos."

"Well I vote ice cream," Kurin said, crossing her arms.

"Me too!" the blond boy exclaimed. Big shocker there.

"I want ice cream," Menma smirked.

"But you hate ice cr-"

Menma kicking him under the table cut Naruto's comment short. "You know it's my favorite."

"R-right …" The blue-eyed boy muttered, looking pained.

The anger towards Menma Keta had gotten over earlier rushed back and she opened her mouth to snap at him, when something more important caught her eye. She could tell Kurin saw it too because the purple haired girl stiffened beside her.

Two people had just walked into Ichiraku's, a woman and a man. The man was tanned and had his dark hair pulled into a ponytail, his beady eyes scanning the restaurant with a scowl. The woman had bright pink hair that hung down in her face, and dark narrowed eyes that shifted around the ramen shop as if she was looking for something.

Or _someone._

But it wasn't this that made Kurin and Keta uneasy. They weren't even really concerned with the fact that the two looked right at them and smirked like they knew something they didn't. They didn't even care that they sat _right_ behind them. They were the only other people there after all.

No, it was the fact that the two wore purple and black jackets with the Sound's symbol decorating the back, and the fact that the woman was carrying a small silver flute. A flute that just so happened to be the signature weapon of the Sound's top assassin.

"Keta …" Kurin's eyes got wide and she looked at her friend in shock. "Are they-?"

"Yeah," Keta said.

"And they're here to-?"

"Mmhmm."

"So we need to-?"

"Oh yeah."

Damn. The Sound had figured out who they were and were starting to tail them. Kurin and Keta had dealt with this sort of thing before, of course, and usually two lackey losers would be no problem, but the girls were supposed to be on a 'date' today. They had to get rid of Naruto and Menma long enough to beat the crap out of the Sound freaks and high tail it out of there.

"Right," Kurin sighed and whispered after thinking this over for a moment. "Bathroom in ten."

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

**(1) I know Menma doesn****'****t have full on red eyes in the movie, but I don****'****t care. He has red eyes in this. Even though none of the Uchihas do. Why? Because Uchiha****'****s have dark eyes and hair unless they got the Sharringan on. And I feel like Menma should have red eyes. No arguing. It****'****s cool.**

**(2) popular sweet shop in Konoha located on Konoha Tea Avenue.**

**Kurin: Hi guys! It's just me at the end of this chapter because Keta is being a lazy piece of poo and hopefully next time she'll do her DAMN JOB because she sure hasn't been doing that lately. **

**YOU SEE THIS, KETA? I BROKE OUT THE CAPS LOCKS BECAUSE OF YOU. GOOD JOB. GOOD. JOB. **


	5. Chapter 5

**Kurin: Chapter 5! A lot happens this chapter, and there are a ton of new characters making appearances, including the ever amazing Ariku-sama and Shadow. **

**Keta: Hey, Kurin … shouldn't we be writing disclaimers for every chapter we post or something?**

**Kurin: Uhmm … well, we wrote one for the fist chapter, so just so everyone knows, that disclaimer counts for the entire story. Because we quite obviously do not own Naruto, Kishimoto does. **

**Keta: Unfortunately …**

**Kurin: u_u Yes, it is a shame. **

**Keta: Such a shame.**

**Kurin: The shamiest of shames.**

**Keta: This is stupid, read the story:**

Chapter 5

Stretching her arms above her head, Keta secretly sneaked a peek at the assassins sitting in the booth behind them.

"Damn, they look like the real deal," she whispered to Kurin. "That chick is bad news. I heard from Mr. Lazy Ass (1) that she actually gave him a run for his money." Ignoring the ruthless stares she felt digging holes in her back, she slapped money on the table and stood.

"I'm going for a … walk. Don't forget those sharp sticks (2) you love so much, Kurin. It wouldn't nearly be as much fun without them." Not waiting for the questions she knew would come from the Playboy and Sunny McSunshine over there, she left before any objections could be made. She hurriedly walked to the exit, keeping up a glaring contest with Menma the entire way.

Shaking her head at Keta's antics, Kurin glanced covertly at the Sound, who were watching Keta like a hawk. About two minutes after her dark-haired friend's exit, Kurin faked a moan of pain.

"Gah! I gotta use the bathroom! I think I got my … period?" At this the boys paled and immediately jumped away from her, letting her leave the booth with no questions asked. Snickering to herself as she entered the bathroom, she scanned the walls for an exit.

A window. _Perfect_.

A jump and a squeeze away, she was free. Hearing a whistle she turned to see her friend looking like she was taking an army on by herself, and then some.

"Did you really need the Multi-Barrel mini-gun?" Kurin asked as she dug some throwing knives out of her bag and watched her friend strap the beast around her torso, which was covered in ammo.

Not that she minded. When it came to firearms Keta was way better in that department. Keta always handled the big guns like the assault rifles and rocket launchers. When given a gun, she turned fully demonic with just a hint of insanity. Make that a bucket load of it, topped off with a fierce killing intent that could rival the nastiest of killers in jail.

Still, Kurin had her Katars and Keta could never beat her when it came to those babies.

"When do you not need a big explosion to finish things off quickly?" Keta retorted, smiling fondly at her weapons.

Rolling her eyes at Keta, Kurin started walking up the alleyway as she slid on her mask.

"Since you have a rocket launcher, Did you bring the grenade launcher?" Keta scoffed at Kurin's question.

"If you listened to me the last time I told you about it, you would know I can't bring that. My MK-19 automatic grenade launcher is too big to just carry around like," reaching into one of her secret pockets, Keta pulled out a what looked like a mini-cannon and shoved it in Kurin's masked face, "this Desert Eagle over here. It's a bonified cannon in your hand. This baby can go anywhere, while the grenade launcher needs to be fired at a distance."

Seeing the lost look Keta was getting from her idiotic companion, she scoffed. "Man, you really don't get guns. Whatever. As for the grenade launcher, Ariku has it, along with who knows how many snipers on the roof across the street."

"You called Ariku?" Kurin asked. They actually hadn't seen Ariku since they started going to Konoha High.

The dark haired girl shrugged. "I wanted some backup and we need to restock on weapons anyways. I feel better having someone watching our backs. Well, more specifically, your back."

Determined not to be put down, Kurin lashed out. "So what if I can't always use a gun? It's not like you do any better with my Katars." Bringing one out almost soundlessly, she showed it to Keta. "These are the real deal. Guns are unpredictable and kill people. I don't want that."

"Ugh, Kurin just let it go. It was one ti-" Kurin immediately cut Keta off with a glare.

"Don't speak of that. You promised. _Never again._" Kurin's breathing turned into panting and Keta sighed, patting her on the shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah calm down baka. It won't happen again. I promise I won't let that happen ever again." Sharing a quick hug, the two saw three flashes of light on a rooftop around the corner.

Nodding at each other, they quickly took positions. _It__'__s time_.

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

"Hey Menma, she's been in there for a long time. Do you think she's okay?" Nervously tapping his foot on the ground, Naruto didn't even look at his brother. "I mean, what if she's being kidnapped... or raped?!"

Rolling his eyes at the lovestruck teen, Menma swiftly tapped the back of his brother's blond head.

"Calm down, baka. It's not like she's going to ditch us to go fight in a gang or something (3)." Downing the broth in his bowl, he stretched. "But I guess you're right. She's been gone for fifteen minutes. I'm pretty sure girls don't take that long. Maybe you sh-"

Not letting his brother finish that sentence, Naruto shot out of his chair and ran to the bathroom. Not ten seconds later he ran back out panicking.

"She's not in there!" While trying to calm Naruto down, Menma failed to notice the two Sound members pull out their weapons and aim them at their heads. Feeling a cold metal on the back of their heads accompanied by a dark chuckle, the two boys slowly turned around.

Naruto came face to face with the calculating gaze of the dark haired male, his eyes expressing his amusement. "_You two_ are the ones were supposed to capture? Ha! For leaders of Saiken I expected more out of you."

Menma was faced with a pink haired woman's sultry smile. "Oi fucktard, the leader is obviously this looker over here." Running her hands through his hair Menma had to fight the urge for his dinner to come back up.

Clearing his throat he calmly took a step away from the gun and weird flute player trying to hit on him.

"Look lady, I don't know what the hell Saiken is and I really don't think I'll care much. So whatever you want, do me a favor and leave me and my brother out of it." Approaching his brother, who was shaking even worse than before, he was shocked when a bullet flew right by his face.

"Look here pretty boy, stop playing dumb. We know you're the leader of the mysterious group Saiken and we're here to end you. Plain and simple. So don't blow this shit out of proportion."

The man of the group pointed to the exit with a smirk, "Unless you want those girlfriends of yours to get hurt. We can do this the easy way, or the hard way. Make a- HEY!"

Naruto had now melted into a puddle of mush, muttering things like "...Kurin my girlfriend ... Mmm ... Kurin-chan~..."

"Weird kid …" Shaking his head at the boy, the man turned to focus on Menma again.

"So what's it going to be? You might as well know, either way I'm going to kill those girls. Just to spite you I might even do a few _other_ thing to pass the time." Laughing at the obvious fury on the teen's face, he started to circle him, ignoring his partner's warnings to stop.

"I don't know about the purple haired freak, but I might just keep that other girl as a pet. Oh, but of course she'll have to learn her place." Eyes still locked on the shaking teen, neither assassin heard the doors of the shop open, but they _did_ hear the clicking sound of a gun being reloaded.

Turning they were met with two fists, throwing them to the opposite side of the shop. Rubbing their heads, the assassins looked up to see two cloaked figures, and though

they were wearing masks, it was obvious the two were furious.

"Well, well, well," a menacing voice said from the figure wearing the wolf mask. "Tayuya and Kidomaru, members of the Sound Five. Do tell me what in the _hell_ you two think you're doing?!" The hatred and fury dripping from this person's words made the Sound members visibly shiver … then again that could also have been from the rifle pointed in their faces.

The one wearing the fox mask looked no better. Similar to the wolf, this one was shaking with undiluted anger, their glossy bladed weapons aimed towards them. This did nothing to stop the two on the ground from getting up.

"Who the fuck are you?" Spat Tayuya, keeping the barrel of her gun trained on Menma as she glared at the fox masked form in front of her.

"Still can't keep a lid on that potty mouth of yours, huh Tayuya?" The voice of this person sounded distorted and raspy, but it was definitely female.

Tayuya made a face. "Have we met before?"

"Congratulations halfwit," the fox figure turned slightly to show the assassins the Saiken symbol decorating her jacket, "you finally realized that you've got the wrong people."

Kidomaru's eyed got wide and he tore his gaze away from the angry wolf masked person with the guns to stare at the other. "_You _guys are the leaders of Saiken?"

"Yin and Yang … " Kurin began, smiling slyly beneath her mask.

" … At your service," finished Keta, still sounding more than a little pissed off.

"But … " Kidomaru shook his head, not understanding. "You're chicks, right? The leaders of Saiken are male."

"HA!" Keta's sudden laughter took everyone by surprise except Kurin, who had also started laughing. "Hahahah, what are you stupid? Oh Kami, no wonder you idiots haven't figured out who we are yet. You can't even tell a boy from a girl!"

"Pfft," Kurin snorted, shaking her head. "How stupid could you get?"

"W-well," Kidomaru said defensively, "you are wearing masks, so it's hard to tell …"

Kurin and Keta looked at each other as he said this, weapons still raised.

" … "

"BWAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"Bah- bah- BAKA!" Kurin said, barely managing to keep her Katars aimed while shaking with laughter.

"Ahahahahaha s- seriously. So … frigging … stupid!" Keta gasped.

"Hey!" Tayuya finally stopped aiming at Menma and moved to aim at Kurin. "Stop laughing, assholes! This is real!"

"Yeah!" Kidomaru copied her move, aiming a gun at Keta's masked face. "We're not joking around here, so tell us. Are you the real leaders of Saiken?"

Under her mask, Keta quirked a brow, "Are you an idiot?"

"No!"

"Then no," Keta replied, amused. "The two people standing in front of you with weapons pointed at you wearing Saiken masks and jackets that call themselves Yin and Yang are _not_ the leaders of Saiken. We're just a pair of random citizens who got lost on our way to You're Retarded Land and came in here to mildly threaten you and ask for directions."

"Hah good one Yang," Kurin praised, taking a step forward.

The girls said nothing more as they watched Menma and Naruto slip away from the Sound assassins during the argument. Naruto was being restrained from going back to the bathroom by Menma who had to shove a napkin in Naruto's mouth to keep him quiet.

"We don't have time for this Naruto!" The crimson-eyed boy whispered, pushing his idiotic brother towards the door. "We need to find Kurin and Keta, like right now!"

In the blink of the eye, Naruto had run out of the shop yelling, "KURIN!" at the top of his lungs. With a shake of his head Menma quickly ran after him.

Tayuya and Kidomaru tried to follow, but were stopped by the cloaked leaders.

"Didn't you want to fight us?" Keta sneered, guns trained on Kidomaru's head. "Let's take this party outside, shall we?"

As Keta dragged the Sound assassins outside by gunpoint, Kurin bowed to Teuchi the Ramen shop owner and his daughter Ayame, who had been cowering in fear behind the counter while all of this took place. "We're very sorry for the disturbance."

Then, without another sound, she followed Keta outside and into the alley next to the shop. She tried not to smirk at the stolen car that was still sitting in the parking lot where they left it, but she figured she had a mask on anyways so … who cared if she smirked or not?

"Okay," Keta lowered her guns and stretched when Kurin stopped beside her. "Let's get this party started."

"Wait- what the fuck?" Tayuya said, confused. "You're not just going to shoot us?"

Keta scoffed. "What fun would that be?"

"_Fun_?" Kidomaru's fingers twitched on the trigger of his pistol. "This is _fun_ for you? How can you two be so laid-back about this? Do you know who we are? We're top assassins from the Sound five, we're not a joke."

"Whatever," Keta shrugged her shoulders, loosening her muscles for the upcoming fight. "We need to hurry with this. I have somewhere else to be."

"Oh yeah," Kurin agreed as Tayuya also began to look pissed off. "Seriously we need to make this quick, we need to go."

Keta smirked behind her mask and replied easily, "Do you think we'll have time for a stop after? I've had to pee for the last half hour."

"Maybe," Kurin said, amused with how angry the other two now looked, "we can get a little shopping done, too. I think we're out of milk."

"Shut up!" Kidomaru was the first of the two to break, and fired twice at Keta's head. She was ready for the shots, and dodged them effortlessly, firing once at the dark-haired man's leg. "Agggh!" He winced in pain as a bullet shot through his right leg, but surprisingly didn't fall. Instead he charged at Keta, firing bullets at her left and right. She dodged every one, and when she got close enough she gave him one clean hit to the back of the head with the butt of her gun, knocking him out almost immediately.

As all that was happening, Kurin was busy with Tayuya, deflecting bullets with her Katars while slowly inching closer. When Tayuya ran out of bullets, she reached for her special weapon, the famous flute, but Kurin knocked it out of her hand with a flick of her wrist.

"W- what the hell?" Tayuya backed up and tripped over her partner's unconscious body. "What are you two? H- how can you be so fast?"

"We're not fast," Keta said, sounding disappointed. "You're just that lame."

Kurin knocked the pink-haired woman out with an elbow to the head before she could reply, and the two Saiken leaders quickly started trying their captives up. Keta made a quick call to Fugaku at the station to come pick up the Sound assassins before they started running away from the ramen shop.

"That wasn't as fun as I thought it would be," Keta said as they ran.

Kurin sighed. "With your expectations, I'm sure it wasn't."

"What expectations? I have perfectly normal expectations."

"Right," Kurin ignored the looks of terror they were receiving from people driving past them on the street and kept running. "Anyways. Who's gonna stay and fight, and which one of us is going to look for the boys?"

Hearing the gunfire from a few blocks off, Keta slowed. "They'll probably have an ambush set up for whoever finds Menma and Naruto."

"I'll do the ambush," Kurin said immediately. "You know I love them. You go with Ariku and fight."

"But she's probably almost done by now," Keta argued, stopping completely. "I don't want to be on clean up duty with her and Shadow. Dead bodies, ew."

"So you'd rather go deal with the boys?"

Keta thought about this. "Well … no, but if it meant I got to do an ambush, then yes."

"But …" Kurin grappled for another reason. "You'd have to get them somewhere safe while avoiding the ambush until they're gone, and you'd have to do it all with no backup. There's no way you could get it done alone."

"Really?" Kurin couldn't see it, but she was sure Keta was grinning. "Watch me."

"Wait, Keta," Kurin said before Keta could get away. "We don't even know where they are."

"They're over there," Keta spun Kurin around and pointed down the street to Konoha Park where two boys, one with dark hair, the other with blond, could be seen running like crazy. Well, it was more like the blond was running like crazy, and the dark haired one was trying to slow him down.

"He's looking for me," Kurin said, eyes glued to the blonde's running form.

"Ugh," Keta rolled her eyes under her wolf mask and crossed her arms. "Fine. You can go have fun with your boyfriend in the ambush while I help Ariku load ammo and dead bodies into trucks."

Kurin's eyes lit up and she started moving towards the park, "Really?"

"Nope."

Before Kurin could even ask, Keta had tripped her and was bolting towards the park at full speed.

"Sucker!" Keta laughed as she ran. "Ambush, here I come!"

Kurin struggled to her feet, cursing wildly. "Keta! Get back here!" It was too late. The girl in the fox mask sighed and started running towards the last blasts of gunfire, planning Keta's funeral the whole way.

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

A warm breeze ghosted over the city rooftops as Kurin sprinted towards the sound of gunfire. When she came to one apartment complex she ran around back and climbed up the fire escape to get to the roof. She could hear people up there, what she guessed to be around ten, shouting and fighting. Above the cacophony of voices and the sound of running feet, she could hear a series of small explosions and gunfire. She followed that sound straight to Ariku and Shadow, taking out as many sound members as she could before she got there.

When she reached them she scanned the area briefly for signs of a threat before maneuvering carefully between dead and unconscious bodies towards the middle of the area. Her view was somewhat blocked by what looked like an old greenhouse, but from what she could see Ariku and Shadow were having a field ad with their new weapons shipment. Ariku was fighting three men at once in close range combat, while Shadow kept a few others trapped in a gunfight. Kurin settled and waited a while for them to have their fun before growing impatient and deciding to put an end to the fighting herself. Creeping slowly behind their line of sight, Kurin positioned herself to strike …

Unfortunately, she hadn't come here very prepared weapons-wise, and only had her Katars and the usual throwing knives she always carried with her for defense. She had a small pistol in her bag as well, but she normally hated using guns. _Gah_, she thought in frustration, _this wouldn't be a problem if I weren't so opposed to killing people._ _Keta kills people sometimes, it's hard not to when you're in a gang. Why is it such a big deal? Just shoot them. It doesn't matter if they die. _

Even thinking this, she couldn't bring herself to shoot to kill, so instead she took a deep breath and aimed for the non-vital areas on their bodies. She shot them down quickly one by one, shooting them in the legs, arms, and tried to avoid anywhere she knew there would be a major organ, praying they would all survive.

When they were all shot down she walked out into the open towards a pouting Ariku and an ever-silent Shadow.

"Kurin-sama!" Ariku crossed her arms and tilted her masked head to the right in a questioning stance. "You ended our fun too early! I still had this new trick with my bow I wanted to try out …"

"Gomen," Kurin apologized, bowing slightly. "I'm kind of in a hurry."

"I can tell," Ariku slid her Jaguar mask off, revealing a surprised look on a bronzed face, her dark eyes ogling the gun in Kurin's hand. "You used a gun. You hate guns."

"Well it's kind of important-" the purple haired girl frowned when she saw Shadow take off his tiger mask, crimson eyes and dark features giving Kurin the chills as usual. "Hey, should you two really be taking your masks off now? What if someone sees you?"

Ariku waved a hand dismissively, throwing back her hood with a flash of white teeth in a smile. "Eh, don't worry about it. These guys here are half dead anyways, and nobody else is stupid enough to come near us. Official Saiken business."

" … Right," Kurin shrugged and slid off her mask as well. She trusted Ariku's judgment. "Well we should hurry with this, anyways. There's an ambush we've got to attend."

"Ambush?" Ariku's onyx eyes lit up at the idea of testing out more of her weapons. Even Shadow, quiet as he was, began to look a little more interested at this news. Shadow was Ariku's Edo. The two were an odd pair, just seemingly showing up out of nowhere one day with no parents or relatives to speak of. Ariku claimed that she and Shadow moved to Konoha right before The Accident on trading business (trading of weapons, obviously), but Kurin had her doubts. Shadow was, after all, the only other known opposite gender Edo in existence besides Oto. Ariku and Shadow were the same age as Kurin and Keta, but had quit school a long time ago to dedicate themselves to their business, which just so happened to be illegal trading of rare and valuable weapons. Keta and Kurin had met them a long time ago when they first started buying weapons for Saiken. Ariku had shared their love of organized destruction, and had eventually became close enough to them that she joined Saiken as a full fledged member along with Shadow, and they stayed with them ever since.

"Yeah," Kurin grinned. "You got any goodies for me before we start cleanup?"

"When do I not have the goodies?" replied Ariku with a short laugh. "You'll love the new stunning poison I developed. I was thinking we could put it into a type of dart and make a stun gun for you since you have that whole, 'no killing' policy."

"Ah man that would be amazing Ariku-sama, thanks. It really gets hard for me to fight when it comes to long range combat, so that perfect."

"Cool," Ariku smiled again, trying her long dark hair into a messy ponytail. "Shadow? Have you sent a message yet to base about getting us a truck for transport?"

Shadow, who had suddenly appeared right behind Kurin, making her jump, nodded once in conformation and began walking towards a huge metal box. Shadow hardly ever spoke to anyone besides Ariku, and could often slip in and out of a conversation unnoticed. Kurin hadn't even known he'd left to make the call.

"So what is this ambush all about?" Ariku asked as they followed Shadow to the box so they could start bringing crates down.

"Sound mistook the leaders of Saiken to be a few friends of me and Keta's," Kurin explained. "Two guys, actually. They're in trouble so Keta is looking after them now, and we're going to head over for backup when this is done."

"Two guy friends?" Ariku waggled her eyebrows and smiled suggestively. "I didn't know you two had some guy friends you would go into an ambush over."

Blushing, Kurin shook her head. "No, it's not like that. We were all just out and they saw them with us. Naturally they assumed it was the boys-"

"Hold on, you were out where?" Ariku kept on grinning.

"Ah …" Kurin blushed harder and looked away, embarrassed. "We, um … the four of us were all having dinner at Ichiraku's …"

"Like a date? 'Cause that sounds like a date to me."

"Um, no …"

"Really," Ariku paused and put her hands on her hips, raising one eyebrow. "Then what was it?"

"It was …" Kurin's face could not possibly get any redder. "Um … it was, ah … a _double_ date, which is not the same thing. Totally different … and it was a double date against my will!"

"Uh huh," Ariku kept walking, a smirk still on her face. "Because everyone blushes that hard when they talk about a date they didn't want to go on."

" … Whatever, this is irrelevant," Kurin had no real argument against that. "Let's just get this done so we can go."

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

"KURIN-CHAN!" The blonde boy bellowed as he ran through the park like a maniac, his brother following close behind. "Kurin! Where are you?!"

"Naruto!" Menma was starting to get really annoyed. "Screaming and running around like an idiot won't help us find them. We don't even know if they're here."

"But she- um … they could be here, and if they are I want to find them and see if they're okay." Naruto said dismissively, turning to run off again. Menma grabbed him by the shoulders and held him still, glaring at him.

"Why don't we just call them?"

"Oh! Good … wait. I don't have either of their numbers." The whiskered boy had taken out his phone, but flipped it close again when he realized it was useless.

"Are you kidding me?" Menma rolled his eyes. "You've been crushing on this girl for how many weeks already, and you still don't have her number?"

Naruto pouted. "Well it's not like you have Keta's number."

"I'm not crushing on that hoodrat," Menma snapped, a little too quickly. "She's a thorn in my side, nothing more. Come on, let's just keep looking for Keta… and that Kurin girl you love so much." Picking up the pace, Menma managed to get in front of the shocked blond.

Shaking his head, Naruto grinned to himself. He didn't miss the pause between the two girls names. _I'm not as stupid as you think I am baka._

"I thought you were looking for your girlfriend." Menma said when he noticed Naruto hadn't moved. "I'm pretty sure she's not going to be all the way back there."

Finally remembering the reason for their search, Naruto kicked it up to speed, leaving a trail of dust behind him. Sighing at his brother's eagerness to find the purplette, Menma was just about to go catch up when a blob of black crashed into him.

Shaking her head to try and ward off the headache she knew was coming, Keta was about to yell at the offender, but that was when she saw his face. His hair was spikier than usual and his eyes seemed to be staring into her soul. Not that she minded. She felt like she could stare into them for da-

"Didn't your mom ever tell you staring is rude? That is, if you're staring at me with that damn mask on your face." _That_ broke the spell. Menma's calm expression of indifference was lost by the look in his eyes. The red irises were swimming with confusion and slight amusement. He leaned down, waving his hand in her face as an offer to help her up.

_I don't care what day it is, I am __**not**__ going to let this bastard play me, _Keta scowled under her mask at the hand and shook her head."Tch, didn't your mother ever tell you to watch where you're going, Red?" Keta reached out to push away his helping hand when he suddenly grabbed her hand and she landed directly into a firm chest. _Hmm, he must work ou- no! _

Ignoring the girl's obvious discomfort Menma kept her locked in his embrace. Each time she'd squirm, he'd tighten his hold. Keta eventually sighed in defeat…for a minute, until she thought the silence would eat her alive.

"Ugh, baka, what do you want? I'm busy you know, trying to save lives." Menma pointedly ignored her and her failed attempts to get free. "I'm a gang leader, you know! I could really get you for this, so let me go!"

She was really getting pissed now. If he were anyone else, _anyone_ else, she would've been free a long time ago. But Menma wasn't just anybody. He was…well… Menma! And frankly, the way he was holding her was giving her some weird feeling in the pit of her stomach. It took her breath away and made her feel like she was drowning. As she drowned, she battled with herself inside her head, trying desperately to smother her emotions and push him away.

_It's been awhile since I've felt this way. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if I- no! nononononononono! I am not thinking of this. You do not like it, you do not like this, you __**do**__ like this, oh you love his warmth~_

Before she could continue the little rant in her head, Menma shifted around to face her. It was when she felt his warm breath on her face when she realized something…her mask wasn't on.

_The mask __**wasn't**__ on her face. Aw Crap._

Not looking up at Menma, she squirmed out of his hold, which had weakened once he saw her face. Sighing again, she reached down to pick up her mask and slipped it back on. She knew she was it was too late to hide; she just wanted the boost of confidence her mask gave her.

Turning, Keta was faced with something she wasn't expecting. She wasn't expecting it in the _least_.

Instead of yelling at her, hitting her - hell, he could've _run_ from her and she would be okay with it – but… not _**this!**_

Menma was just standing there. Seriously, he was just standing there looking at her. He was observing her. And try as she may, Keta couldn't seem to tear her eyes away from his. It was just one of the stupid reasons why she hated him so much.

"Well who would've thought, resident bad girl Yoshida Keta would be the leader of the criminal gang Saiken. Let me guess, that purple haired chick is the one in the fox mask, right?" Keta desperately wanted to wipe the smirk off of his face, but she knew he was right. _Again_.

Approaching the cloaked girl, Menma pulled down her hood and ripped the mask off her face, holding it high above his head to be sure she couldn't reach it.

"Oi, give that back!" No matter how high she jumped it never seemed to be enough. _Ugh._ Realizing how childish she looked, she crossed her arms with a huff and glared at him.

Smirking down at her and ignoring how cute she looked Menma decided now was the perfect time to tease her. "Do you want this mask? Ha, if you really want it you're going to explain." Gesturing to her cloak, "Everything."

Keta hesitated, not wanting to drag Menma into this complicated gang business, but she didn't really have a choice, did she? He was standing there holding her mask. The cat was out of the bag … hell, it was practically running out of the house and down the street. Keta had to tell him everything. Right when she was going to fess up Naruto came jogging back to the two, looking exhausted.

"M-Menma…can't…find…girls…" Appreciating the distraction Keta quickly snatched her mask from Menma and hid it behind her back before Naruto could see it.

"What exactly are you looking for Naruto?" She asked while he caught his breath. Looking over at the hooded girl, a smile as bright as the sun broke across his face.

"Keta!" Running over he squeezed her in a hug. A one-sided hug.

She dropped the mask, holding her hands in the air uncomfortably. Keta didn't really know what to do, so she settled with awkwardly patting his back. "Yeah, I'm right here. Do me a favor and keep qui-"

"I CAN'T FIND KURIN! I think those weird looking masked peop-" Covering his mouth with her hands, Keta furiously whispered, "Shut up! Those creepy masked people might be right…" Glancing around she found that they had been surrounded.

Peeling her hands off his mouth and stepping out of his embrace, she muttered a curse. Completely disregarding her mask - now lying carelessly on the floor - she reached into her cloak, and silently praised her weapons master as she grabbed two semi automatic black rifles.

"You know, you can surrender right now. I won't judge." Laughter echoed across the park. "You? A girl? Beat us? Yeah right!" Gritting her teeth, she cocked the guns, pulled them out, and fired.

By the first round, three fourths of them were on the ground. Some were dead, some coming very close. She wasn't even halfway done.

"I don't think I made myself clear. _Leave_." Not needing any further instructions, the lot fled, leaving the fallen. Pushing through the crowd of wimps, Kurin, Ariku, and Shadow emerged, the latter scowling in annoyance.

"You couldn't leave any for me? What kind of a friend are you?" Laughing at the jaguar masked face, Keta waved her off. Ariku was already joking around with Keta like everything was just fine, unlike the fox masked girl who immediately saw something wrong with the picture.

"Yang, where's your mask?" with that the laughter died out like a light. It was then Ariku saw the two brothers standing by a tree. One whose jaw had dropped like a sack of rocks, and the other looking slightly amused. Approaching the boys, Ariku gave them a quick look over.

"Hmm. Didn't think I'd see the day you two actually got boyfriends with the way you threaten everybody in a 200 mile radius." Poking their stomachs she hummed her approval. "Nice catch. Let me guess, Blondie over here is Kurin's and Mr. Mysterious is Keta's?" Turning she smirked at the looks of embarrassment and disbelief.

"NO!" Both Kurin and Keta shouted simultaneously.

As she listened to them ramble out excuses and denials Ariku thought with a smirk, _those love struck fools._

"Wait a second!" Naruto ran forward from where he stood by the tree and stood eyeing the newcomers suspiciously. "Will somebody tell me what the HELL is going on here? Who are these people?! Why was Keta shooting and yelling at those people who were about to attack us? Where the hell is Kurin, what is this Saiken stuff, and WHY is everyone but me so DAMN CALM?!"

"Naruto!" Kurin took off her mask and let her hood fall, making the blonde haired boy jump back in surprise. "It's fine. I'm okay, we're okay, it's all okay. Calm down."

"Wh- what? Kurin!? What the- how the … you …" Naruto looked confusedly around the circle of faces, taking in the sight of Ariku with her crossbow, knives, guns and ammo and Shadow with his frightening appearance, as well as Kurin's Katars and Keta's guns. "Weapons? I … you all …" Finally he shook his head and darted forward to crush Kurin in a hug ten times as strong as the one he'd given to Keta. Kurin stumbled back a bit with the weight of him; letting her Katars fall to the ground with a clatter as she hugged him back without thinking, loving his warmth. She knew that Keta must have been rolling her eyes and that Ariku must have been smirking, but at that moment she didn't care. She buried her blushing face in the folds of Naruto's orange jacket, and didn't let go. Naruto, who also refused to let go, continued to speak now that he was calm, not embarrassed at all by the public display of affection. "Do I even want to know what's going on?"

"Well," Keta stepped forward, smirking while she picked her wolf mask up off the ground. "It's kind of a funny story, actually …"

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

Kurin and Keta let their front door slam shut as the sun continued to set over their house up on Hokage Mountain.

"What a day," Keta sighed tiredly and kicked off her shoes, letting her weapons drop to the ground carelessly as she made her way to the kitchen for some much needed energy food. "Explaining all that complicated stuff to those idiots took longer than I thought."

"Yeah," Kurin agreed, following close behind. When they reached the kitchen Keta made a beeline for the fridge while Kurin collapsed at the kitchen table, too tired to move any more.

"Where the hell have you two been?" Asked Oto, walking into the kitchen angrily. "And why do you look like you've been fighting all afternoon? You were supposed to be having fun on a date, not sparring."

"We did go on the date," Keta said, loading up her arms with left over yakisoba, Pocky, and juice. "But … well," she smirked devilishly, "let's just say it was a very _eventful_ date."

Oto's eyes got wide as he took in their appearance, the tired faces, disheveled clothes, and sweaty bodies. "Oh Kami no … please don't tell me …"

"Oh come on Kay," Kurin was in no mood to have Oto in panic mode while she was this tired. "Don't mess with him tonight. We _were_ fighting, Oto. It wasn't anything dirty like that. A bunch of Sound goons showed up at Ichiraku's and started attacking Naruto and Menma."

"What?" Now Oto seemed even more confused. "Why would they attack Naruto and Menma?"

"Because they thought they were the leaders of Saiken," Keta elaborated. "Probably because Naruto is the son of the Uzumaki's. It's only natural to think he'd be involved with Saiken since his parents were co-founders, and Menma is his Edo so … it makes sense to assume he's involved too."

"So what happened?" Oto asked, taking a seat next to a half dead Kurin. Keta sat down next to her, setting a glass of milk and a box of Pocky in front of her tired friend.

"I followed those idiots to an ambush," Keta replied. "Menma found out my identity because my mask fell off, Kurin showed up with Ariku and Shadow, we all fought (kind of), Naruto had a panic attack, and long story short, Naruto and Menma are in on the secret now."

"Oh, I see." Oto nodded as the puzzle pieces began fitting together in his head. "Well that makes more- wait. Wait, wait, and wait. So you mean they know everything? Like, _everything_?"

Kurin nodded, slowly sitting up to nibble on her food. "We told them our whole story. We even explained things that Ariku didn't know until now."

"But … you know what that means, don't you?" Oto frowned. "They're both involved now. We can't undo this. From now on, they will always be in danger because they know our secret."

"They would be in danger either way," Keta shrugged, wolfing down her food as she spoke. "It's better that they know what's going on, that way they can decide for themselves what's too dangerous for them."

"Exactly," Kurin agreed.

" … So you guys must really like them then." Oto said after a moment of silence.

Keta shrugged again.

Kurin started playing with the piercings in her ear.

"Where's Chiku?" Kurin decided to change the subject, not wanting to remember that embarrassing hug her and Naruto had shared. It had lasted a long time that hug. Keta had explained most of their story by the time Kurin was calm enough to come out of her hiding place in Naruto's chest, and even then Naruto had kept his arms around her shoulders, holding her close.

Just thinking about it made Kurin's face flush bright red.

Neither Oto or Keta missed that blush, and exchanged knowing smirks as Oto answered her question, "She actually went out somewhere. I think that's partially the reason she wanted you two out of the house. She didn't want you snooping."

"Oh really?" Keta's smirk became a mischievous grin and she looked at Kurin, who was suddenly feeling more awake.

"Chiku has been sneaking around, huh? We're going to have to look into that."

Oto shook his head with a laugh. "Maybe I shouldn't have told you that …"

"This is going to be a very interesting weekend," Keta said.

"Oh, and don't we have Monday off for that one holiday …" Kurin said, resting her head on her hands and her elbows on the table. "What's it called again…?"

"Hah! Who cares?" The raven-haired girl stood up, finished with her meal, and went to put her dishes in the sink. "I need an extra day off from that train wreck of a school."

"Amen to that!" Kurin stood as well, shuffling out of the kitchen towards the stairs. "I am going to sleep like the dead tonight …"

She waited a beat, then smirked when she heard Keta scoff loudly from back inside the kitchen, "Or not!"

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

"Do something useful for once in your life," Keta said with a sigh, "and help me get this wet thing inside. Bring me a towel or something."

Looking in the direction of the front door, Kurin closed her laptop, got up from her spot on the couch, and padded to where Keta stood looking soaked to the bone.

"Get what inside?" She asked, rubbing tiredly at her eyes as she looked around her friend to see what the big deal was. At first Kurin didn't see anything out of the ordinary in her hands, but when she looked down…

"Keta!" Eyes wide, she squealed and jumped back to hide behind the doorframe.

"What?" the dark haired girl asked, brushing loose strands out of her face. Kurin couldn't understand how she was standing there like the epitome of calm.

Kurin looked at the giant ball of fur next to Keta. "W-what the hell is that?!"

Looking over her shoulder at the animal sitting on the front steps, Keta called it over. "This is my new pet." Keta bent down and rubbed it's head affectionately.

"Your new pet!" The pale girl screeched, "That is a _wolf_ Keta! You can't just take in a wolf any damn time you want to!" Marching over to poke the girl in the chest, Kurin continued her rant. "And what about it's family huh? What will the parents do when they find their baby missing, if you can even call that beast a baby?"

Keta pushed Kurin's finger to the side and met her eyes. The tone she used was terrifyingly calm. "Okay, _it_ is a _she _and she is named Natsumi. You don't need to worry about her parents, I know for a fact that they won't be coming around to kill us."

Holding up a finger to silence Kurin's next question she continued, "They're dead. All of them. I was heading back here and decided to take a short cut when I found her. There was a clearing with a bunch of dead wolves, blood, and knives scattered everywhere. Obviously a bunch of punks did it for no reason."

Standing up she fixed her hood to cover her face, "I was just about to leave when I heard whimpering under two of the dead wolves. Obviously those were her parents who protected her. Long story short, I washed her in a nearby stream and brought her here, hence the reason I am soaked."

Kurin shook her head, still confused. "Kami, Keta. Why couldn't you just bring her into the ESPCA or something? Why keep her?"

"You're the one who said I needed more friends," Keta shrugged. "This is my new friend."

"I meant a human friend!" Kurin ran her hands through her purple hair, frustrated. "A human friend that isn't in the Akatsuki who goes to our school and is our age. Not a goddamn dog."

"Whatever," Keta continued to smile down at her fluffy friend. "It's not my fault you're not specific. I want Natsumi, okay? I want a pet."

Looking at the hooded girl in shock Kurin only nodded and left to get what Keta had asked for. When she returned she hesitated to go in, I mean who wouldn't? If your friend suddenly came home with dried blood in her hair accompanied by a wolf pup that looked like it was Death itself, and it looked years older than any _normal _pup should, what would you do? Run over and hug it?

Taking in a deep breath, Kurin walked in and immediately froze. There Keta was…but she was _smiling_. She wasn't eating anything either, or talking to Oto. She was smiling because of the wol - no - Natsumi. Natsumi who was curled into Keta's lap, nuzzling into her stomach and - what really shocked Kurin – Keta was nuzzling back just as affectionately. Kurin had never seen her friend interact this way with any animal since… well it's been a really long time.

Kurin involuntarily smiled at the scene. The pair looked good for each other. Natsumi's black and gray coat clashed well with Keta's dark look. And her golden eyes somehow made Keta's black ones look brighter than ever. Rather than interrupt the two, Kurin dropped the towels in the doorway and left to go pour herself some milk. If that wolf made Keta happy then she was going to let it stay no matter what.

In the middle of pouring herself a glass, Kurin pondered over Keta's new friend. Then, slamming the jug of milk down Kurin squealed in delight. "Keta! I want a pet now too! Mine is totally going to be better than that wolf of yours."

Keta reeled back in the midst of petting Natsumi and laughed. Natsumi found her chance and scrambled up to lick her face. Laughing and pushing Natsumi's muzzle back she replied with a grin, "Nothing will ever be better than my Sumi over here. Yup, that's exactly what I'm going to call you from now on, Sumi!" It seemed Natsumi liked the idea, because she barked in joy.

"Well then my Sumi's different!" Keta laughed as Natsumi jumped on her again and nuzzled into her stomach.

Although she would never say this to her face, Kurin secretly liked the way Natsumi had changed Keta in the little time she'd known her. She couldn't stop the smile that grew on her face when she heard her friend's joyous laughter fill the house.

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

Later that week Kurin came home in the best mood, lugging a huge covered object into the house.

"Tadaima!" (1) She called as she made her way to the kitchen. "Everybody come downstairs to the kitchen! Family meeting! There's someone I want you all to meet."

"Maa, maa," Keta sighed, ambling down the stairs, Sumi hot on her heels. "What's all the fuss about now? I was in the middle of doing nothing."

Kurin rolled her eyes and smiled widely when she saw Oto and Chiku enter the room as well. "Okay, okay, who can guess what this is?"

"Your brain?" Offered Chiku with a smirk.

"No," Kurin scowled. "I'll give you a hint. It's my own Sumi."

"Sumi?" Keta looked down at her new little furry friend. "What abou- no." She snapped her head up to scowl suspiciously at her pale purple-haired friend. "You did not get another puppy."

"Don't be ridiculous," Kurin said, reaching to pull off the cloth that covered the box she had been carrying. The other three shared a moment of relief before the cloth fluttered to the ground, and they saw what it had concealed.

"HOLY SH-!"

"Is that a-?"

"A snake?"

Kurin beamed at Chiku, who had been the least surprised out of the three. "Right!" she said, reaching into the glass tank to pick up the scaly creature. "His name is Kazuki and he's a carpet python. Isn't he gorgeous? I went to the pet store today to look for a pet since Keta got one, and at first I had been looking for like a hamster or something, but … the guy at the shop was cleaning Kazuki's cage and Kazuki really seemed to like me and …" she smiled softly, letting the snake curl around her shoulders like a shawl. "I dunno. I like him."

Keta was about to scream at Kurin 'A snake? Really? A _snake_? What the hell?!" but then she saw the hopeful expression on Kurin's face and she restrained herself. She took a closer look at the reptile, keeping her mouth shut for once. Oto thought the snake was freaky but agreed to letting him stay in the house so long as he didn't go slithering around scaring people. Kurin promised he'd only be in her room. Chiku smirked and said she didn't care what a little nureta mofu like Kurin did with a snake as long as it didn't bother her. Kurin promised he wouldn't bother anyone. Keta held her tongue and stared at this snake, Kazuki. He was dark on top, covered in a dark speckled pattern with bright yellow alternating spots that made him look almost like a leopard or something. Personally Keta didn't mind snakes. She just didn't want Kurin's new weird pet to cause trouble for Sumi, so she finally said this, watching the scaly intruder slide around her pale friend's arm.

"Sumi and Kazuki will be fine," Kurin said. As she said this, she bent down and let the curious little Sumi sniff her arm, and Kazuki. Kazuki's forked tongue flicked out to greet the wolf pup, and the two didn't seem particularly fond of one another, but it didn't look like they'd fight either. "See? Totally fine. They probably won't even really see each other."

Chiku lifted a brow, doubtful. "How did you know that would work? What if Sumi bit Kazuki's head off just now?"

Kurin shrugged and smiled crookedly as she watched Sumi lose interest and trot away to go explore something else. "It was just a hunch." Kazuki, despite his size, seemed very comfortable draped around Kurin's shoulders. Keta kept waiting for him to constrict around her throat and choke her, but he didn't. He just kept slithering up and around her arms and shoulders, tongue flicking, light brown eyes unblinking.

"So can I keep him, or what?" Kurin asked, even though she was already picking up the glass tank to bring upstairs.

Keta shrugged. "Whatever."

"Cool," Kurin said, taking the stairs two at a time, Kazuki still resting around her neck, "if you guys need me I'm gonna be building him some stuff up in my room. He'll love my canopy-framed bed. They like to climb trees."

"Wow, nureta mofu," Chiku drawled as she made her way out of the kitchen. "Thanks for the fascinating information that I don't really care about."

"Whatever, you're just jealous!" Kurin called happily down the stairs.

"Oh yeah," Oto shook his head and wandered over to the fridge. "Bring a giant snake into the house. Great idea. I'm sooo jealous."

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

_It was all complete chaos._

_People were fighting left and right, scattered and frantically running without any rhyme or reason. The Sound was going up against Saiken, purple and black against white-masked hoods. It was a knife fight in the middle of a deserted shoe factory in downtown Konoha, and it was a free for all. Of course, Kurin and Keta, the two secret leaders of Saiken were in the middle of the fight, knocking out Sound goons around every corner. Keta laughed behind her wolf mask as she swung her baseball bat around and made contact with yet another target, and Kurin was jabbing people left and right with her favorite Katars. The shiny-steel-razor-sharp-custom-made-retractable Katars she'd gotten as a gift from Ariku. _

_But of course, Kurin wasn't doing any killing. No matter how hard she tried every time she found she couldn't kill anyone. It was like her body wouldn't let her do it, even if all the people she fought were murderous criminals. She just couldn't kill people like Keta could. It wasn't that she didn't want to at times, or that she didn't have the chance … she just … couldn't._

"_You got this next guy, Yin?" Keta called from where she was crouched behind Kurin. When they were on duty doing Saiken business, they called each other Yin and Yang after the necklaces that they'd had since they were kids. Neither of the girls ever took them off, seeing that they were the only pieces of their parent's they had left. _

"_Yin?"_

_Kurin shook herself out of her dark thoughts and replied to her friend, "Oh. Yeah, no problem. I've got this."_

_Keta stood, turning to look at her masked friend in concern. "You sure?"_

"_Yeah," Kurin shrugged the worried arm off of her shoulder and lunged at the next person from Sound that she laid her eyes on, leaving Keta's anxious stare and all her ugly memories behind._

"_Well, well," a malicious grin greeted Kurin as her blades collided with a pair of knives, "if it isn't little Yin. Ready to take off that ridiculous fox mask and tell us where the key to the lab is?"_

"_Oh sure, Kabuto," Kurin heaved her Katars forward, making contact with the silver haired man's weapons again, "right after you and your mob of drug huffing lunatics stops being so vicious and evil."_

_Kabuto's glasses flashed against the dim light and he made his own attack, Kurin dodging with barely just enough time to spare. Incase you couldn't tell, these two didn't get along very well. They had a history of causing conflict and almost killing each other every time the Sound and Saiken met._

"_Shut up you little brat," Kabuto hissed. "Coming from someone who runs a gang full of pansies, that's pretty rich."_

"_First of all …" The masked girl spun to the left to avoid another deadly attack and kicked out her right leg in an attempt to trip him, but she had no such luck. Kabuto was one of the best, after all. " … I am not a brat. Second, I'm not a pansy for valuing human life, you dirty little pile of snake shit. And third …"_

_She sliced at his right arm and finally made contact, leaving a small gash in his flesh. _

" … _I didn't ask for your opinion, so shut your mouth."_

_Instead of getting angry, the silver haired man smirked. "So much hate pent up in that tiny little body, Yin. And here I thought you and I were friends."_

"_Friends?!" Kurin lunged at him again, more aggressive than before. "It's like you want me to cut your tongue off."_

"_Silly girl," Kabuto dodged her over and over, barely evading her relentless attacks. "You wouldn't hurt a fly. Weren't you going on just a few moments ago about the value of human life? All those colorful threats you dish out are empty ones. Empty and worthless, just like you."_

_Kurin faltered in that moment, hearing the word empty. The word worthless. But then she remembered whose mouth those words where coming out of, and kept fighting, still furious. "How would a creep like you know? You don't know me! You don't know anything about me!"_

"_Oh don't I?" Kabuto's grin just seemed to grow and grow. "I wonder what kind of a person would work so hard to protect a secret that was never theirs to keep, especially when they won't even let their identity be known?" Kurin finally stopped fighting and stood, watching Kabuto as he became more and more excited about something. Like he was just realizing something important … "I've been trying to figure out who you are for quite some time now, Yin." He said the name slowly and bitterly, all the lemon with none of the lemonade. The masked girl was helpless as she watched him begin to laugh in between his words, infinitely amused with this new discovery. "You've always reminded me of someone I used to know … but it wasn't until just now that I realized why."_

_He abruptly moved very close to Kurin, leaning towards her to whisper in her ear. She let him move next to her, not wanting anyone to hear what she knew he was about to say. _

"_Your mother had the same fiery temper, and that same ridiculous hair, Tanaka Kurinkitafu. You should be more careful with your hood. That hair is too easy to recognize."_

_Her breath hitched when she heard mention of her mother, and her blue eyes became huge with shock when Kabuto backed up again, laughing hysterically. _

"_To think," He said in between bouts of manic laughter, "that all this time it was _you_! It was _her_ child … oh ahahah, Kami that's rich. This whole damn time … hah!"_

_Kurin said nothing as Kabuto continued to laugh. She said nothing as she watched his thin lips contort into what could hardly be considered a smile, and his eyes became blocked by the glare of lights on his glasses. She stayed very still as the fighting continued, uninterrupted, and Kabuto just kept laughing. And laughing and laughing. She didn't have time to let rational thoughts be processed in her head. She was to busy trying to disappear, to be so still that she actually stopped existing. Oh yes, the masked girl became very silent and still when something snapped inside of her. A piece of her sanity seemed to just drift away as Kabuto laughed. All of the things she had been repressing, all of the anger she had been holding back all this time, slipped past an invisible line and rushed into her veins, making her heart race._

_Kabuto's noise was suddenly silenced._

_There was a low and ragged intake of breath as she plunged her blades into his chest, silvery-blue eyes wide and wild beneath her mask. Kabuto sputtered and gasped for air with the lungs that could no longer function, Kurin's Katar's slicing violently through his now shattered ribcage. As if this wasn't enough, Kurin pressed the release mechanism on the handle of her Katars, making the blades on shift apart and reveal the poison dipped dagger hidden in the middle. Kabuto managed to let out one last desperate scream as his insides were scrambled and burned, slowly killing him from within. But really, he was already done for. Kurin let his almost dead body fall to the ground with one last violent twist of her wrists, dislodging her weapons from his chest._

_Kabuto's bloodcurdling scream had made everyone fighting freeze to watch the scene. Now the hooded girl stood alone, hunched with blood dripping from her blades onto Kabuto's almost dead body. _

"_Kabuto!" A man who looked just like Kabuto, Edo-Kabuto, rushed forward to help his dying brother, but a sharp cold sound stopped him in his tracks. _

"_HA!" Everyone's eyes were locked on Kurin's warped form. "Hahahahaha … hehe … he's dead. They're all dead~"_

_The laughter continued, a broken and erratic sound, and a single solemn figure watched from the shadows, unmoving, as this all took place. The figure remained unmoving even when she heard the laughing stop, and the screaming start. She didn't move when everyone else fled and the sirens began wailing, or when Chiku and Oto called for her to leave. No, Keta didn't move until Kurin called for her, then she helped her ruined friend to her feet, and they ran out into the night._

Clawing at her own throat, Kurin sat up gasping. Not enough air, not enough air, no matter how many breaths she took. It felt like she was the one who had been stabbed … but Kurin knew better. That had been no dream. No nightmare. That had been a very real memory. _The_ memory.

The memory of the day she murdered a man for the first time and was caught at the scene of the crime, changing everything.

If it hadn't been for that day Kurin and Keta would have never had to transfer out of Suna High and into Konoha High, and they wouldn't have had to move their lives away from their friends in Suna. More than anything Kurin missed Gaara and Edo-Gaara and their siblings. The red headed boys had been her closest friends, and now going to this new school, she felt a bit out of place. She visited them almost twice a week, and was planning to see them that weekend along with Ariku and Shadow to go clubbing, but she still missed them every day. They were like what Akatsuki was for Keta, her second family.

Family.

Kurin wondered what her parents would think of her now if they were alive. Would they be close to her? Would they be a happy family? She feared what she knew of her parents, what Kakashi had told her … about how crazy they'd been … and how one day she might become like that. Maybe she would be crazy, but at least if they were there she wouldn't have to be crazy alone. How would her life have been if The Accident never happened? She would miss Chiku and Oto, that's for sure. She would miss a lot of people. She would have never met Ariku or Shadow, Menma, Edo-Gaara, Edo-Kankuro or Edo-Temari, but her life would be almost completely normal, and who knows? Maybe she might have even been happy.

Maybe she wouldn't be having these nightmares every night, replaying her most shameful moments over and over again, each one laced with death and filled with guilt. And then there was that nightmare with the explosion where Keta died every time. Kurin still didn't know what to make of that.

The purple haired girl shivered slightly and tensed when she felt something move in her bed, but relaxed when she realized it was only Kazuki.

"Hey buddy," she whispered, letting him slither onto her lap and curl up to sleep again. "Sorry if I scared you."

Kazuki didn't answer, but nuzzled into her palm when she went to pet his head.

"I even scare myself sometimes, you know?"

Still, there was no answer.

"It can be pretty scary … "

Silence.

"The things insane people do."

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

**(1) She would be referring to the one and only notorious lazyass, Shikamaru.**

**(2) Keta likes to call Kurin's Katars sharp sticks because … she's Keta and she likes to nickname things, so why not?**

**(3) Hah see what we did there? I love irony.**

**Kurin: Le gasp, what is this? We finally understand why Kurin is such a little insomniatic weirdo? The world makes so much sense now. Oh, and I would like to formally apologize to all Kabuto fans at this point in time. Gomen. Him and me don't get along well.**

**Keta: And yet you freak out when you kill him? You make no sense.**

**Kurin: I do so make sense. You know why I can't kill people, they just don't know yet. That's why it would be called a secret. **

**Keta: Pfft whatever. I should tell them right now why.**

**Kurin: … Thanks for reading folks, ignore the demon who likes to spoil surprises, she's harmless. PLASE REVIEW! **


	6. Chapter 6

**Saiken goes out to club Sannin and gets smashfaced on a school night. **

**Kurin: WARNING! This chapter is insane. There is alcohol, clubbing, love triangles, talk of booties, buttsechs, orange vampeeres, and sooooo much Drunk Keta. So beware … and enjoy! **

**Keta: Ummm … heheh … I regret nothing …**

Chapter 6

Kurin dug through her hamper Monday night trying to find her favorite black leather jacket. The Subaku's were making a trip to Konoha to go clubbing that night, along with Ariku and Shadow and she wanted to be ready by the time they got there. They were going to club Sannin, the club that Jiraiya ran. He was married to Keta's grandma Tsunade, and even though him and Keta weren't related by blood he treated both Keta and Kurin like his granddaughters, and always let them and their friends into his club for free.

"Nureta mofu!" You could probably guess who that was. "Your stupid friends are waiting for you out on the porch."

"Oi," Kurin snapped, turning to scowl at her rude counterpart. "They're your friends too, so I don't know why you're calling them stupid."

"They may be my friends, but they're still stupid."

Kurin rolled her steely blue eyes and sighed, "You think everyone is stupid."

"Yes," Chiku agreed, watching Kurin furiously kick her hamper in frustration. "Especially you. By the way if you're looking for your leather jacket, it's hanging by the front door where you left it a few days ago."

Kurin raised her eyebrows, surprised. "How the hell do you do that?"

Chiku leaned against the doorframe as Kurin walked past her out into the hallway. "What? Remember where people put things? It's not hard. You just have to pay attention."

Kurin scoffed as she made her way down the stairs, and Chiku followed slowly, taking her time. "Are you sure you don't want to come with us?"

"Going out with you, Edo-Gaara, Ariku, and Kankuro in a place that sells alcohol and blasts stupid music too loud on a school night so I can drag your drunk ass home at three in the morning?" Chiku shook her head as Kurin stopped by the front door to put on her jacket. "Sounds fun, but I'll pass."

"Are you sure I'm the wet blanket, Chiku?" Kurin looked back at her sister and smiled a crooked smile. "You're being quite a fun killer right now. What up with you? You usually love a good bar night."

Chiku shrugged. "Not in the mood."

"If you say so," Kurin knew better than to pester Chiku any more. "I'll be back … eventually. Don't wait up for me, it is a school night after all."

"Don't worry, I wasn't planning to," Chiku crossed her arms and Kurin pulled open the front door.

"Ja ne!"(1)

"…"

Out on the front porch, Kurin squealed with idiotic joy and glomp-hugged both Gaaras. "Gaa-chan! Gaara! Guys it's been so long!" Chiku could hear her say happily. The quiet girl moved to the front window to watch Temari, Shikamaru, Edo-Kankuro, Kankuro, Ariku, and Shadow greet Kurin. The nureta mofu pulled away from her redheaded friends to smile happily at the group, but seemed to be looking for someone who wasn't there. Kurin opened her mouth, about to speak when suddenly a bright orange viper curved into their driveway and her face lit up like it was Christmas morning.

"Naru!" She waved a blond haired whiskered boy over as he got out of his car.

"Eheheh … sorry I'm late. Kurama wouldn't let me leave the house 'till my room was clean, and my room is usually pretty gross."

"It's fine," the pale girl quickly dismissed his late arrival and gave him a big hug in greeting, getting a glare from Edo-Gaara.

"Who is this guy?" Edo-Gaara asked suspiciously. Edo-Gaara was like that sometimes.

"Oh!" Kurin reluctantly let Naruto go, a light blush visible on her face, even in the dark. "Sorry. Everyone, this is Uzumaki Naruto. Naruto, these are my friends the Subaku's and the Kage's. Oh, and Shikamaru, but you know him."

"Hey," Ariku stepped forward and smiled. "We kind of met before, I'm Kage Tekuarikishiku, but you can just call me Ariku, and this is my Edo Kage Shadow."

"Oh," Naruto smiled widely. "Nice to officially meet you guys."

"Yeah, it's super great, but why are you here?" Edo-Gaara snapped, still scowling.

Kurin shot Edo-Gaara a disapproving look. "He's here because I invited him, Gaa-chan. Be nice."

"Whatever," The redheaded boy crossed his arms and continued to scowl as the group started making their way to the cars so they could go.

"I'll ride with Naruto!" Kurin volunteered, making Edo-Gaara scowl all that much more.

Chiku rolled her eyes and scoffed at the scene outside, all too aware of what was going on. It was no secret that Edo-Gaara had a crush on Kurin. Kurin was oblivious to it of course, and claimed that they were just best friends, but Chiku knew otherwise.

"Are they gone?" Keta called down the stairs as Chiku watched the cars pull out of the driveway.

"Yes. Where are you going?"

Keta bounded down the stairs taking two at a time in her favorite sleeveless black hoodie with red clouds on it. It was a gift from the Akatsuki on her last birthday.

"Out. See ya, don't wait up." Pausing at the doorway, Keta bent down to pet Sumi and left. Chiku watched her jump into her sleek black Lamborghini and speed off. Shaking her head, she put on her dark green leather jacket and left. She had her own things to do.

Watching this all unfold from his seat in the kitchen, Oto headed towards the stairs and muttered to himself. "Of course I'm left here, again, while they go all out on me. I can feel another headache coming on, ugh." He turned back to head towards the kitchen. "I'm going to need a strong drink for this."

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

Driving up to the giant mansion the Uchiha's called their home, Keta slid out of her Lambo, not bothering to lock the car. I mean, who would dare steal anything from Uchiha mansion or be anywhere near this place? Knocking on the door three times her height, she admired how the moonlight danced off the glass windows. Hearing the door being unlocked, she diverted her focus onto the annoyed black haired man that now stood in the doorway.

"Tch. It's just the loud, obnoxious little Hoodrat," Locking gazes with Keta, Black eyes meeting black, the man opened the door further.

"Obito," Keta greeted coldly, crossing her arms. "Where's Madara-ojisan?"

"Keta-chan," A deep voice called out.

Smirking, she sidestepped Obito and waltzed in like she owned the place. "Konnichiwa Oji-san. How's the old life?" Keta eagerly embraced the chuckling, black haired Uchiha senior.

"It's good. How's your short life?" laughing at her un-amused expression, he directed her to the living room.

"Haha, very funny Oji-san. Why aren't you idiots ready yet?" Directing her question to the group of idiots currently bickering amongst themselves.

"They're arguing over who gets to drive," He sighed, still smiling. "Get them out of my hair, would you? With them being so loud during the day, I need quiet at night."

"Hai, no problem," Keta smiled. If there was one person she respected, it was Fugaku's Edo, Madara. He wasn't her real uncle, he was actually Sasuke's and Itachi's, but she had claimed him as her uncle and those two as her brothers, whether they liked it or not. The Akatsuki were her extended family, and the Uchiha's were her _extended_ extended family.

"Oi, you slow bums," She called out sharply, and the squabbling died down. "You heard the man, I'm driving, so get you're sorry butts outside in five or I'm leavin' without you!"

They all stared at her for a second before scrambling towards the front door in a mad rush to the car. Keta calmly sidestepped the mob rush while Obito was trampled.

Madara laughed amusedly as his nephew scowled at Keta, brushing himself off and getting to his feet. "Oh come on that was hilarious! Arigato Keta-chan, I can always count on you."

He patted her on the head and she beamed up at him, "I'll visit again soon!" She promised, and followed her crazy pack of friends out into the driveway. "Ja ne Oji-san! Ja ne Baka Obito!"

"Ja ne!" Madara called, and smiled as he watched the group ride away.

Obito scowled, saying nothing. He didn't understand why Madara favored such an annoying little hoodrat, but had no place asking questions.

"Obito, my boy, can you stop by the kitchen for me and ask Mikoto if dinner will be ready soon? These old bones aren't working like they used to."

"Hai, Madara-sama," Obito smiled wickedly, and headed towards the kitchen as he asked.

Obito knew better than anyone, Madara's bones were working just fine.

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

Looking up at the building glowing with neon lights, Kurin turned towards her companions, practically beaming with Naruto's arm draped around her shoulders.

"Are you guys ready to get drunk off our asses, 'cause I am!" not waiting for her friends, she dragged Naruto in the club, ignoring the security guards who eyed her curiously. If they had a problem, they could take it up with their boss Jiraiya after she was finished kicking their asses. Kurin had needed a fun night out for a long time, and she wasn't going to have it ruined by some stupid bouncers she could knock out in a second.

Inside the club, music was pounding loud, the bass shaking the colorful ground beneath their feat as people jumbled together and danced in one drunken mass at the center of the dance floor.

"What are we doing first?" Asked Edo-Kankuro from behind her.

"I don't know about all you guys," said Temari, tugging her lazy boyfriend towards the bar, "but I need a drink."

"Hells yeah," Kurin agreed immediately, Naruto staying beside her as she made her way to the bar and sat down. Ariku sat on her other side and then Edo-Gaara, Temari, Shika, and Kankuro. Shadow sat on the end. Gaara and Edo-Kankuro disappeared somewhere before anyone could ask what they were doing. Kurin guessed they were headed to the dance floor. That was really the only place you could go in Sannin, besides the bar and a few seats scattered around the back.

"What are you getting, Kurin?" Asked Ariku, looking over her options.

"Vodka," the purple-haired girl replied without hesitation, and then spoke a little louder so the bartender could hear. "Greygoose, please."

"Oh me too," the blond boy beside her added. "I've never tried Greygoose."

"I'll have a Black Russian, then." Ariku said.

"Bloody Mary," Temari looked over at the lazy brunette beside her and asked, "You getting anything?"

"Nah," He replied with a yawn, brown eyes tiredly scanning the club. "I don't really like to drink much in places like this. Too troublesome the next morning."

The blond girl rolled her eyes at his typical response and took a sip of her drink when it was served to her. "So what's it like so far in Konoha, Kurin? Keta adjusting?"

"You could call it adjusting," Kurin scoffed and took a long swig of vodka with a smirk. "Or you could call it throwing a giant tantrum and not adjusting at all. She doesn't like all the new rules, or all the new people. All she ever wants to do is run around with those Akatsuki freaks."

"Still?" Kankuro laughed. "Man, Keta never learns. Only she would be ballsy enough to hang around with the people she's supposed to be fighting."

"That's what I say," Kurin sighed, chugging down another round. "We're gonna have to either kill 'em or cuff 'em to get them off the streets. It's Saiken law, but she never listens. She doesn't understand how bad they can be. It's like she sees it, just … ignores it. Like all the drug dealing, theft, heists, murders, and damage they're responsible for don't count as long as she says they're okay."

"That's Keta for you," Ariku shook her head. "Other than that, how are you liking Konoha? It's awesome you finally live here like me and Shadow."

"Well they didn't really move," Edo-Gaara pointed out, sipping his beer. "They live right between Suna and Konoha on the mountain, so it's not like it's that different for them."

"Yeah," Kurin nodded. "We wouldn't leave the house anyways. Well, I wouldn't … don't know about Keta, but I can't imagine anyone else living there. It was our parents' … I can't just leave it."

"Well we've been talking about moving to Konoha too," Edo-Gaara said, catching Kurin's attention. "Since it's harder to be away from where all the Saiken stuff is happening."

"Oh," Temari smiled, "That's why I brought it up in the first place. I wanted to ask if you thought it'd be a good idea for us to move here and have the boys just go to Konoha high so we don't miss out on Saiken business." Temari had graduated two years ago and all the boys moved had in with her when she got her own place back in Suna. None of the Subaku children liked their father much, Edos all included.

"Are you kidding!?" Kurin was ecstatic. "That would be awesome! Guys! Of course I want you to move here."

"So you think we could do it?" Kankuro asked.

"Yeah, man!" Kurin sat back in her seat, leaning into Naruto a little to keep herself from falling off. She was really chugging the vodka. The blond boy was being surprisingly subdued and quiet, content to let Kurin catch up with her friends. "I could totally help you and Temari get jobs and everything, this is gonna rock."

"Great," Temari smiled and turned to Shika, who looked like he was about to fall asleep. "You hear that, lazy ass? I'm moving here. Aren't you excited?"

The tired boy shrugged, blinking slowly. "I knew she'd say yes, so it's not really that shocking."

Temari watched as he folded his arms across the counter of the bar and began unceremoniously trying to sleep right there, music blasting and all. The blond girl smacked him awake and stood, slapping down some money for her drink. "No sleeping while we're out, come on. I know how to wake you up. Dance time."

He rubbed the back of his head slowly standing and muttering, "Alright, alright geez … crazy woman … troublesome …"

The pair wandered off into the crowd to have their fun and Kankuro scooted down next to Edo-Gaara, leaving Shadow where he was to drink his shots in indifferent silence.

"It's gonna to be so much better now that you guys are moving here. I've missed you like crazy." Kurin said, a flush beginning to form on her usually pale cheeks.

"Are you sure you should be drinking so much, Kurin-chan?" Naruto finally spoke up, concerned.

"She's fine," Edo-Gaara snapped, leaning around Ariku to put an arm on Kurin's almost-drunk shoulder. "Just having fun."

"Yeah, Naru," Kurin smiled dizzily. "I gotta live a little sometimes, don't I? 'Sides, it ain't like I'm driving later."

"Yeah," Edo-Gaara's hand moved lower to rest on her back. Naruto pretended not to notice … and that it didn't bother him. Ariku frowned as well, not liking what was going on either. Kurin knew she had liked Edo-Gaara for a long time, and had promised to help get them together … Kurin was too buzzed to notice anything.

"Hey!" Kurin smirked suddenly, getting up from her seat with a small stumble. Naruto went to steady her, but Edo-Gaara got there first, and leered when he caught the blond boy's glare. "We should all go dance, guys!"

"Good idea," Kankuro was quick to follow and started bobbing to the beat as they moved towards the dance floor. Ariku and Naruto followed more slowly, both not pleased with how things were starting to go.

"Oh by the way Kuro," Kurin stumbled a bit to get out of Edo-Gaara's vice grip so she could talk to Kankuro. "Keta told me you were gay?"

"What?" The brunette boy scoffed. "That's Edo-Kankuro, not me."

"Huh? But she said it was you."

"Hah nope," Kankuro shook his head. "Keta gave you the wrong information. I'm not gay, I'm just picky. Edo-Kuro's the gay one who would bang anything with a pulse, including Gaara."

Kurin froze, and beside her, Edo-Gaara winced. He didn't want to hear about this topic again. "What the hell do you mean?" Kurin sobered up a tiny bit at the shocking news.

"Yeah, you didn't know?" Kuro tilted his head to the side. "We caught Edo-Kuro fucking Gaara in the bathroom two weeks ago. Apparently they're an item, and they don't care who knows it."

"But …" Kurin was at a loss for words. "Wha … they're … I mean … why?"

He shrugged. "My brothers are fucked up, literally, look."

The purple-headed girl followed his gaze to the corner of the club where two said boys were furiously making out, not even bothering to seem inconspicuous.

Kurin shuddered and looked away, frowning at the ground. "Okay, could have gone without seeing that. It's … odd, but whatever. Not my business who they bang."

"Are you kidding me?" Edo-Gaara spat, glaring at the pair from next to Kurin. "It's freaky and unnatural. What the hells wrong with them, doing something so wacked?"

"It is kinda weird," Ariku agreed. "Since technically in a way they are brothers, but it's not like we can stop them."

Naruto also shuddered, even though he had just met the boys. "I can't imagine Menma and Kurama doing something like that …ewww … now what if it really happens and I have to move out and live on the streets because my brothers are busy having buttsex on the couch and being gross?"

"Eh," Kurin smiled at Naruto's over active imagination and moved past Edo-Gaara to slip under his arm. "Don't worry Naru, I don't think that will happen, but if it does you can move to my house."

The whiskered boy's face lit up, forgetting the ugly image that had been stuck in his head. "Really? I've never seen your house. Would you have room for me?"

"Sure," Kurin smirked. "But you could always just sleep in my room."

Naruto blushed and beamed, nodding wildly. "That's one idea."

"Another idea is that you back the fuck up and wipe that stupid grin off your face before I do it for you." Edo-Gaara said, glowering furiously.

"Whoa Gaa-chan, calm down," Kurin looked at her red haired friend in confusion. "What's up with you tonight? Why are you so pissed off?"

"Why are you hanging on that loser like he's somebody important?" He shot back fiercely, ignoring Ariku's defeated stare. Kankuro made a smart move and quickly disappeared at the sight of his brother losing his terrible temper.

"Because he is important," Kurin snapped, finally angry.

Edo-Gaara looked hurt for a second, before his death glare doubled in force, "Didn't you just meet this loser, though? What's so special about him?"

Kurin bit her lip, sobering a little to look nervously at Edo-Gaara's furious face, and Ariku's sad expression, and Naruto's hopeful look. She was just suddenly realizing what was going on. How could she put Edo-Gaara off without hurting him and without giving him hope? How could she steer him away from her and towards Ariku?

"He's my boyfriend." The words tumbled out of her mouth before she knew what she was saying, and quickly tried to recover by changing the subject. "I wanna go dance with Naru now, so why don't you and Ariku dance or something? Ariku?" She shot her raven-haired friend a pointed look and tugged a shocked blond boy along deeper into the crowd. She hoped Ariku could put together the courage to admit her feelings while Edo-Gaara was still shocked and somewhat calm.

"K-Kurin-chan?" Naruto looked like he was about to either throw up or squeal with glee. Maybe both. "D-did …did you mean what you said back there?"

"Uh …" Kurin finally blushed, now that she wasn't busy fearing for her life because of Edo-Gaara. "I dunno, yeah? If you want to, I mean-"

A pair of tan lips crushing into hers abruptly cut her off, and it was like all the alcohol in her system making her feel fuzzy and serene froze up and shattered. _Naruto is kissing me_, she thought, taken aback. _He just … he's _**kissing**_ me._

And he kept kissing her, strong arms winding around her skinny frame to hug her waist as she stood there, awestruck and unmoving. Her entire body was on fire, tingling wherever he touched. When he bit her bottom lip and ran his tongue along her teeth, she woke up with a start and pulled back to ask, "Wait, wait, what are you doing?"

He flashed her a toothy fox grin, blue eyes electric in the flashing lights of the club. "Kissing you." He pulled her close again, nuzzling her neck. "It's okay though, I'm your boyfriend."

"Oh," Kurin let her head fall back as he attacked her collarbone with his mouth. "Okay then …"

So the purple haired girl stood in the mass of dancing people, lost in the wonderful wonder that was now her boyfriend's lips as he explored his new territory. This went on for quite sometime before Kurin heard a crash somewhere off to her right and moved her head to look at whatever it was. When her eyes finally landed on a drunken person bellowing from on top of the bar counter, the last person she expected it to be was Keta.

Yet, there her best friend was, drunker than Cooter Brown on the Fourth of July, singing the lyrics to Get Low as loud as physically possible. And since it was Keta, that meant it was pretty damn loud.

"TO THA WINDOWSsss," She sang, swaying dangerously close to the edge of the counter, "TOoo THA WALLSSss … TILL THA SssWEAT DR-RIP - hic - DOWN MY- KURIN?!" Drunk Keta stopped singing and squinted at Kurin, seeing she was there watching the horrible scene unfold. "What're yew doin' here?" Drunk Keta stumbled off of the bar as Kurin rushed to go see if her stupid friend was alive, and Naruto, who was pretty drunk at this point and very happy being attached to Kurin's neck – stayed attached to her neck. "… An' why's that - hic - or'nge an yellow thingy suckin' on yer neck? Is itta vampeere?"

"No, baka," Kurin helped her tipsy friend up as best she could with Naruto still on her. She would have shoved him off … but she didn't really want to. Quite frankly, Kurin was pretty drunk herself and was just barely functioning normally enough to not be stumbling around like Keta. "It's not a damn vampire it's Naruto. What the hell are you doing here?"

"Ohhh," Keta leaned on the bar for support and stumbled a little, giggling. "I came here withhh tha 'Katsuki, but it's a secret. Shhhh, don't tell Kurrrrrrin, she'll be maaaaaaad if you do~"

Kurin had to restrain herself from facepalming.

"Where are your stupid friends?" She asked instead, speaking slowly and loudly so Keta's drunken mind could process her words.

"Which onez?"

"The Akatsuki, where did they go?"

"Ohh heheheh well ya see, they gots inta a fightsss sssooo I'm kinda alone now 'cause they're thrown out somewhere out there. Deida …ra .. harahrah said that I wasn't drinkin' nuff so I showed himmm, I drank it all. - hic – SEE DEEDEE-KUN? I DID IT!" She gestured vaguely towards the exit and closed her eyes, leaning so heavily on the counter it looked like she might lay down on it soon.

"Come on you drunk idiot," Kurin dragged Keta by her hood towards the bar where Shadow was still sitting quietly alone.

"Shadow I have to go, can you make sure everyone gets home okay? I have to bring these two home."

He took one look at the two drunks leaning on her and nodded.

"Kay thanks," She turned slowly and stumbled towards the exit dragging the two with her. "You and Ariku can crash at my place when you're done."

And with that, she walked out into the night to hail a cab home. There was no way she could drive with this orange vampire stuck to her neck.

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

Stumbling sleepily into the dark bathroom, Ariku flipped the light on and cringed at the sight of her reflection in the mirror.

"Ahhh man, what the …?"

She was completely naked and sore as hell, covered in weird red marks and bruises. And her lips were all red and puffy … if she didn't know any better she could have sworn she looked like she'd had …but she hadn't, right? She wouldn't …

But she couldn't really remember anything …

The dark haired girl rubbed at her aching head and sighed, "Damn, what the hell happened last night?"

Behind her, the curtain to the bathtub moved aside and suddenly Keta was standing there, looking disheveled and half dead.

"Man … that's what I wanna know …"

"Keta!? What the-" Ariku jumped and rushed to wrap a towel around herself, embarrassed. "Please tell me you weren't sleeping in the tub all night …"

"Obviously I was," staggering out of the tub, she pinched the bridge of her nose and at on the edge of the bath. "I just don't remember how or why."

"Ughh well don't ask me, I have no clue what happened to me or anyone else at all …" Ariku frowned at her reflection again.

Noticing the red marks scattered across her friend's tan skin, Keta moved forward, struggling to focus her eyes with the hangover headache she had. "… Are those all hickeys? Kami, Ariku, what did you _do_ last night?"

Ariku winced. "Ugh I'm not sure I want to know. Come on, let's get dressed and go see if anyone else is awake. Maybe someone remembers."

Keta nodded her head tiredly, dark bangs flopping into her face. "We'll check the kitchen first, that's the best place to fight a hangover, where all the food is."

Ariku just rolled her eyes and watched Keta walk to the door. "Of course you'd think so."

"I don't think so, I know so," Keta stepped out into the hallway, still looking only half awake. "And if I know so, it is so."

"… Right." Ariku quickly shut the bathroom door behind her, happy to be alone again so she could freak out in peace. _Hickeys?!_

"… I get the last word!" Keta called from outside in the hall, so loudly that she probably woke someone up. That was Keta for you …

Ariku closed her eyes and slumped against the door, annoyed that she still couldn't remember anything.

_What a messed up night that was, _she thought with a sigh, _I forgot how crazy it always was here …it's like I've gone back in time …back to when I was around here almost every day. Those two never change, always causing trouble…_

Shaking her head, she snorted and opened her eyes to stare at the sink.

_Who am I kidding? They _are _the trouble …_

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

After the two girls were dressed and semi-lucid they met up in the hallway and walked downstairs carefully, not wanting to make their headaches any worse.

When they reached the living room, they were met with a little surprise, so they stopped to stare for a second and share knowing looks.

Uzumaki Naruto was passed out on their couch, shirtless and sloppily covered in blankets. From how things were arranged, the girls could tell someone else had spent some time laying with him … but whoever it was had obviously gone into the kitchen. So frowning confusedly, they walked towards the smell of coffee in the kitchen and found one tired looking Kurin nibbling on Pocky at the counter.

"So you two finally decided to emerge from the deep dark depths of your own stupid drunkenness to find out what happened while you were under the influence, huh?" The purple-haired girl asked, stirring her freshly made coffee.

"Yeah," ignoring the sour look on her friend's face, Keta sidled up to the blue-eyed girl with a scowl on her face. "But before we get to that, I'd love to know what that blond baka is doing in my house sleeping on my couch."

"Oh you saw him, did you?" Kurin replied with a sigh. "He's just sleeping."

" … Well does he have to be doing it in my house?" Keta shot back. "How did he even get here? Why is he shirtless? What were you doing with him? Why the fuck did I wake up in the bathtub? Did you lose your virginity, because if he violated you while you were drunk I'm going to have to castrate someone later … what happened at the club? Why is Ariku here? What time is it? Do we have any chocolate milk left or are we out, 'cause I need some. Oh, and WHY THE FUCK DID I WAKE UP IN THE FRIGGING BATHTUB?"

"Calm down," Kurin waved a hand dismissing her worries with a small yawn. "It's past noon, one thirty maybe. There's half a gallon of milk in the fridge for you if you want some. And you got here because I brought you here in a Taxi, along with Naruto. You were both completely smashed and I couldn't leave him alone … I don't know where he lives, so I just took him with us. And I didn't lose my virginity," she rolled her eyes, snorting. "If anyone should be accused of that it's Ariku."

"What?" Ariku blinked, frozen in shock.

"HAH, I knew it!" Keta grinned her wolfish grin, heading to the fridge to claim her chocolate wake up call.

Kurin tilted her head to the side, a little puzzled, but mostly just amused. "You … really don't remember anything, do you?"

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

The world was one loud, bright, spinning blur as Kurin lugged Keta and Naruto up the front steps of the house, desperately trying not to fall down. Her head fuzzy and unfocused because of the alcohol, and really she just needed to get upstairs and take a shower. She had to clear her spinning head.

"Kuuuurrrinn~" laughing, Keta stumbled through the front door. "Why's it sooo dark in hearrrr?"

Kurin sighed and stood in the front hall holding up her dozing boyfriend as Keta staggered around the house, flipping on and off lights. "Wheeeeree did all da peoples go? We need some peoples herrrrree."

"People will be coming later, for now why don't you go and find Oto? He should be upstairs." Kurin told her.

"Otototototo?" Keta blinked, her black eyes wide. "I know that guy. He's a … a … what's he?"

Kurin furrowed her eyebrows, not really understanding. "Oto is your Edo, your brother. He lives with us."

"Ohhh right, right," Keta bobbed her head, nodding. "He's that."

"Right. Go find him."

"Find who?"

Kurin scowled. "Him."

"Him who?"

"Oto."

"Otoooto is him?"

"Yes, Oto is him. Go find Oto."

"Go find … what? Him or Otooo?"

"Both. Go find Oto. Go find him."

"Buttt … heheheh I said butttt…"

Naruto started waking up a little as he hung on Kurin's shoulder, and Kurin was getting tired of playing games. "Keta!"

"Kurrrrinnn!"

"Go upstairs and find Oto," the purple-haired girl pushed her drunken friend towards the stairs. "Now."

"Okayyy!" Keta tripped up the stairs, giggling as she called, "Ooooootttoooo, Where is himmmm? Otootototo! Wherrreeee is yoouu?!"

Kurin sighed, shifting Naruto on her shoulders and the blond boy must have felt it because soon his eyes were open again, and Kurin was staring into pools of cerulean blue.

"Ku- Kurin-chan?" The brilliant blue eyes blinked, and Kurin blinked back. "Where … where are we?"

"My house," The purple haired girl said.

"Oohhh, okay …na … Kurin … why are we at your house?"

"Because you passed out and I didn't want to leave you alone," she answered, slowly moving towards the couch.

"Okay then."

"Yeah," Kurin stopped in front of the couch. "Stay here, okay? I have to go check on Keta."

Naruto collapsed onto the couch when Kurin let go of him, but when she tried to walk towards the stairs he grabbed her and pulled her down with him.

"Naruto!" Kurin squirmed from where she now sat on his lap, blushing.

"Where are you goin' Kurin-chan?"

"To check on Keta," The pale girl answered, still squirming to get free. "Stay here and rest for a while. I'll be back."

"But I don't wanna rest, Kurin," The whiskered boy said, nuzzling her purple hair.

"Then what-"

A tongue licking the shell of her ear cut Kurin off.

She gasped, arching away from Naruto as his arms pulled her in again, holding her close. "Naru I have to g-go and check on … on …"

All rational thought left her when he started sucking on her neck again, and Kurin stopped trying to speak.

Keta would be fine without her for a while … probably …

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

Shadow sighed as he unlocked the front door of Kurin and Keta's house, a band of giggling drunk idiots laughing behind him. Ariku was draped around Edo-Gaara's shoulders, the two practically doing the dirty right there on the porch, and one half asleep Kankuro was leaning heavily against the side of the house.

How did Shadow get roped into being the drunk people babysitter?

He opened the door and started to usher the others inside, but stopped when he saw what was happening on the couch. Kurin and Naruto seemed to be having a good time. Clearing his throat loudly to let them know he was there, he slammed the door even louder when all the drunk ones were in the house. Kankuro immediately stumbled towards the stairs, and Ariku and Edo-Gaara followed after him, moving quickly. Kurin and Naruto still didn't seem to know they weren't alone.

That's how he got suckered into doing this. Usually this was Kurin's job, but tonight Kurin had been 'occupied'.

"Kurinkitafu," Shadow called after a moment of uncomfortable silence. When she didn't seem to hear, he said louder, "Kurin."

Finally the half-drunk girl looked up at him dazedly from where she sat straddling Naruto on the couch.

"… Shadow? When did you get here?" She tried to move away from the now shirtless blond boy, but he wouldn't let her leave.

"Kurin-chan," He whined as she struggled to get up. "Stay with me~"

Shadow rolled his eyes.

"Naru, let go," She ordered sternly, pushing away his wandering hands. "Now, I mean it. Let go. I'll be back in a second, I just have to check on Keta and talk to Shadow real quick."

"Fine," He pouted, "but I'm going with you …" He tried to sit up, but winced when he did, and immediately curled back up on the couch, clutching his head. "Ow, okay, maybe not …"

"Just wait here," she leaned down to kiss his forehead, and that seemed to calm him down a bit. "Stay. I'll be back."

"Okay …"

The purple-haired girl turned to look at Shadow, who stood with his arms crossed, spiky black hair falling over his crimson eyes. He really was an intimidating looking guy, especially considering how tall he was and what dark clothes he wore. You definitely wouldn't want to cross him in a dark alley, and it was times like these Kurin was glad he was in Saiken and not some opposing gang. She wouldn't want to have to fight someone so daunting.

"Sorry about that," Kurin eventually said, heading towards the stairs. "Did you bring Ariku with you?"

"Yes," casting one last glance at the blond boy sulking on the couch, Shadow followed her, shaking his head. "She's upstairs with Edo-Gaara."

"Oh," She turned around when she reached the second floor, eyebrows raised. "It went that well?"

Shadow shrugged. "Kankuro is also probably passed out in one of your other guestrooms. I couldn't find Shikamaru or Temari, and I didn't bother looking for Edo-Kankuro or Gaara."

"Okay, I just want to make sure Keta is okay with Oto, it's strange that he hasn't come to yell at me yet for letting her drink so much." Kurin said, and started walking towards Oto's room, but tripped and would have fallen down the stairs if Shadow hadn't been there to catch her. "Whoa, thanks." She shakily stood again, gripping the handrail for support.

"Go lay down or something," Shadow said, moving around her. "You're going to hurt yourself."

"But Keta-"

"I'll check on her."

"Oh," Kurin gave him a funny look. "Um, okay then, thank you. I'm just going to go take a shower real quick. Feel free to take whichever guestroom you want, we have tons. And there's food in the fridge if you're hungry."

"Right," Shadow nodded, and kept walking. When he heard the door to Kurin's room close he paused a moment and sighed. He was being awfully generous today. Maybe he should just go take a nap instead. After all, Keta was with her Edo, wasn't she? She should be fine.

He was about to turn around and head to his usual room when he stayed here … but he stopped dead when he heard a crash and an outbreak of giggles coming from Otonashi's room.

Great, He sighed again, this should be fun.

"Otttotototo!" He could hear Keta giggling as he opened the door to the room. "Nooooo~ my turn, mine! You - hic - says I could hava sip if I guessed right and I did, I did it!"

"But'chu guessed wrong da first time," Oto swayed from where he was standing on top of the bed, a half empty bottle of Bacardi sloshing in his hands. Keta was standing on the ground, jumping to snatch the bottle while stumbling drunkenly. On the floor behind them Shadow could see at least two other empty bottles lying on their sides.

"Oi," Shadow demanded angrily, "What's going on in here? I thought you were supposed to be sober, Oto."

Oto looked up and smiled at him, falling onto the bed with a bounce. "I'm sobered, I'm so so so sob ader … ah … so sober I'm - hic - … sober."

"Sober soap adder fatter patter - hic - patter flatta pat madder~" Keta sang, lunging to grab the bottle and beaming when she got it out of Oto's confused hands.

"Whattare yew saying?" Oto asked, looking at Keta confusedly as she cuddled her new bottle of rum.

"I'm saying yayyyy …" She cooed, and started rocking the bottle like it was a baby.

"Oh for Kami's sake …" Shadow rolled his eyes and took the bottle from Keta, pulling her by her hood towards the door. "Come on."

"Waaaat!?" Oto protested. "But yew took my stuffs, my … whatzit called … Bacarrdoo ..."

"What," Shadow turned when he reached the door, careful to keep Keta from touching the bottle again, "this? You don't want this. This is poison."

"Poison!" Keta shrieked, and stopped trying to grab it. "Nooooo, but I dranks so muuuch of itttt! Ima - hic - gonna dieee!"

"Don't worry," Shadow assured her. "The poison can be cured if you go to sleep right now."

"Yesssssir!" Oto saluted and flopped down onto the bed, knocked out cold.

Keta stood blinking at him as he turned the lights off and closed the door. He stood staring back at her in the hallway, still holding the Bacardi away from her incase she decided she didn't believe him.

"… Na …" Keta rubbed at her eyes and ran a hand through her hair tiredly. "Who are yew?"

Shadow sighed. "Shadow."

Keta looked down at her feet and pointed, "Noooo, my shadow's there."

Deciding he was done talking to a crazy drunk, the dark skinned boy began walking towards his room. "Go to your room and sleep, Keta."

"Hayyy, wait," Keta stumbled after him, "I gotstaaa tell - hic - yew somethin'."

"What?" He snapped and crossed his arms, the bottle sloshing as he did so.

She beckoned him close with one finger and when he finally moved his head near her stinky alcohol-smelling mouth, she whispered, "I havvvva ssssecret …"

He waited for her to continue, and when she said nothing he moved away, but she pulled him back and finally told him, "I think … Uzummamaki Menma has a nice asssssss~"

" … ?"

"Yeah," she said a little louder, "His booty is niccccceee~ I think I love his booty, yew know? It's just ssssso nice. I think I love all of the other stuff too. It's all nice."

She threw an arm around him suddenly and began to shout-sing loudly. "I'mmmmm in looove with a nice, nice booooty!~ I'mmm in looove with Mennnnma~ Buttt … hehhheh I said butttt … don't tell Ketahah I said dat! She'll be MAAAADDD!~"

Shadow was about ready to just throw her off of him and run away when suddenly the bathroom door swung open and a wet Kurin jumped out, blue eyes wide.

"What the hell is all this noise?" Kurin ran over pulling Keta off of Shadow and apologizing.

"It's fine," Shadow dismissed. "Just get her to sleep somehow. I'm going to bed."

"Okay," Kurin wiped her still soaking wet purple hair out of her face and started dragging Keta with her to the bathroom so she could dry it properly. "Thank you so much again, really sorry about all this … come on Keta, I need to finish drying my hair. Can you wait with me here?"

"Kaayy kayy," Keta smiled widely, playing with Kurins hair as they walked. "Your hairsssa funny color."

"Oyasuminasai," (2) Shadow was already down the hall, his figure lost in the dim light.

"Oyasuminasai," Kurin called back, before pushing Keta into the bathroom and shutting the door.

"Ooohhh~" She could hear Keta exclaim from the behind her, "Look at this bigggg thingy over here, it loooksss sssso soft!~"

"Keta!" Kurin groaned miserably. "Do NOT fall asleep in the tub again, seriously, it's getting old!"

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~XX~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

Downstairs after all that nonsense took place, Kurin went to check on Naruto and found him fast asleep on the couch, shivering. She quickly covered him in blankets and checked the time, laughing to herself when she saw it was four in the morning. Then, feeling extremely tired and completely spent, she crawled onto the couch next to her boyfriend, careful not to wake him. As he threw an arm around her and sighed happily in his sleep, Kurin closed her eyes for the first time in too long and sighed.

What a fucking crazy night.

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

Shaking her head and covering her mouth with her hands in shock, Keta couldn't help but laugh. "I said that? I said all of that? How idiotic, I'm never drinking again if that's how stupid I act! I mean, I was worse than Kurin when she goes to a park."

"Hey!" Kurin scowled and punched her shoulder. "Parks are fun. And don't even bother saying you'll never drink again, 'cause you say that every time, and then you do it again anyways."

"Yeah, but that's terrible," Keta said in disgust. "I mean come on …Get Low? What was I thinking?"

"What were you thinking?" Ariku started pacing back and forth, terrified. "What was I thinking!? I had sex with Edo-Gaara! I mean, I've always wanted to, but … I don't even really remember it …"

Keta shrugged, taking a sip of her chocolate milk. "You know the solution, right? Just do it again."

"Again!?" Ariku groaned. "He probably doesn't remember either! It was my first time and I don't remember a thing!"

"No he does," Kurin assured her. "He woke up this morning before and got Kankuro up so they could go look for Temari and drive back to Suna. He says he wants you to call him later, and that he'll see you again when they move up here this weekend."

"Wait what? They're moving to Konoha this weekend? What?" Keta asked, lost.

"They're moving here, didn't I mention that?" Kurin said.

"No …" Keta scowled. "Makes me wonder what else you haven't mentioned …"

Kurin blushed, thinking of Naruto, and how she had conveniently left the part about him and her dating out of her explanation. "Don't be stupid. By the way, incase you forgot today is Tuesday, so technically we should be in school right now. I called Tsunade and told her you got the flu and gave it to me and Naruto, and that Oto stayed home to take care of us, and I'm not sure she believes me, but whatever."

"Ughhh great," Keta groused. "As if I don't have enough to worry about. I totally forgot about Baa-chan."

"Hn," Kurin crossed her arms and snorted. "Serves you right for causing all this trouble."

"Oh, so it's all my fault? I didn't tell you to go clubbing last night."

"True," Kurin admitted. "But you also didn't tell me that you were going clubbing last night."

"Whatever," Keta got up, her cup of chocolate milk now empty. "I'm going to call Deidara to yell at those idiots for leaving me at the bar. This is really their fault. If they hadn't left me after telling me to drink so much, this would have never happened."

"Of course not," Kurin rolled her eyes.

"Hey, Kurin?" Ariku said. "Is Shadow still upstairs?"

"Yeah," Kurin replied, standing to clear the dishes off of the table. "He wanted to talk to you, actually, said he got a call this morning … something about your apartment being foreclosed. Whatever that means."

Ariku's eyes got wide. "W-what?"

"Yeah, he said-"

"KURIN!" Ariku suddenly burst into tears. "Don't you know what that means!? We couldn't pay rent so the bank is taking our house! We have no home!"

"Huh?"

Keta and Kurin looked at each other, confused.

"But aren't you guys super rich from selling all your weapons?" Kurin asked. Her and Keta didn't worry about money. They were loaded from their parents' fortunes and Sarutobi took care of all their money and bills.

"Yeah, but that's all illegal money, we can't just use it all to pay our house bills! We're orphans, wouldn't it be a little suspicious if we just started spending money all over the place?" Ariku sobbed. Keta, who never really liked feelings or emotion, backed away slowly, arms up. Kurin watched her do this and sighed, moving to hug Ariku to calm her down.

"Hey, hey, it's okay. You guys can come and stay with us if you need to."

"What? People in my house eating my food?" Keta raised a brow. "Who said that?"

Kurin glared at her, patting Ariku's back. "She has no home Keta. Are you just going to let them live on the streets?"

"Oh fine," Keta grumbled, "but they have to help pay for my food."

"We can do that!" Ariku said. "We can pay rent too, if you want."

Kurin shrugged. "I'll ask Sarutobi about it. We're supposed to see him soon anyways, right? He's going to come by the school to ask Tsunade how we're doing."

"Are you kidding me?" Keta facepalmed. "This is getting ridiculous. Where have I been while all this was being planned? How do I miss everything?"

"Oh I don't know," Kurin said, handing Ariku a paper towel so she could blow her nose and wipe her face. "Maybe because you've been busy gallivanting around with the Akatsuki, ignoring all the work that needs to be done?"

"Well shit, what else have I missed!?"

As she said this a tired looking blond boy wandered into the kitchen and yawned widely, shirt now on and phone in hand.

"Heyyy guys …" He moved towards Kurin and stretched as he walked, "I called Kurama, so I'm gonna wait out front for him to pick me up. He's real mad I didn't call him last night, so I need to go in a hurry."

"But I'll see you tomorrow, right Kurin?" He stopped in front of her and gave her a long chaste kiss goodbye, making Ariku blush and look away while Keta's eyes got huge.

"… Wait a second … WHAT. THE. FUCK?!"

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

**(1) Ja ne means see you later**

**(2) Oyasuminasai means goodnight or, if translated literally from Japanese, 'Go to sleep'**

**Kurin: Hahah this chapter was so fun to do. I'm glad we got to write some fun stuff before the serious junk starts goin down.**

**Keta: Pfft what serious junk? The only serious junk around here belongs to Menm-**

**Kurin: YEEEAAAHH. This was a very interesting chapter. And more fun happens in numero siete, so stick around for that. Ja ne for now!**

**Keta: Don't act like you can actually speak Spanish. You suck in that class.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Kurin: This chapter … hmmm. Warnings: Crazy Keta + Bakemono-kun = Eggnog.**

**Keta: …**

**Kurin: Enjoy?**

**Keta: Hn.**

Chapter 7

" … What … are you wearing?"

Keta smirked, "Uniforms. Baachan gave them to us."

"They don't … look like uniforms …" Ariku tilted her head to the side and frowned.

"Well… let's just say, they're new and improved." Ariku looked them over doubtfully, taking in the sight of their 'uniforms'.

The once red and grey plaid knee length skirts had been torn in half, now only just barely there, and under them the girls had layered ripped up shorts with pocket chains. Their white button down shirts had been drawn on all over. On the back the two proudly sported the Saiken symbol … you know, safely hidden under jackets … Kurin's was silver leather and Keta's was the Akatsuki hoodie. Kurin had on dark red spiked ankle boots and Keta wore a pair of knee high black leather heel boots instead of the pre-approved school shoes they had been given. "I just can't walk in those gross old lady things," Keta had said.

So basically, they didn't look like they were wearing uniforms at all. It looked like they were going Trick or Treating as semi-slutty biker schoolgirls.

"Keta," Kurin eyed her friend warily, "What … exactly is that you have on over your shirt?"

"What?" Keta was busy trying to rush out of the house. "It's a hoodie."

"Covered in red Akatsuki clouds?"

"Uhh … yeah?"

Kurin crossed her arms and sighed. "Take it off please."

"Please?" Keta's eyebrows raised and she snorted. "Who are you and what have you done with Kurin?"

"Just do it."

Chiku and Oto made their way down the stairs in their own uniforms, but wearing them normally.

"Nah," Keta grinned wolfishly. "I'm good. Iguso." (1)

"No." Kurin stood her ground, blocking the door. "We're not leaving until you take off that thing."

"We're going to be late …" Chiku sighed quietly, giving Kurin a pointed look.

"Don't look at me," Kurin shrugged. "I'm ready to go. Just waiting for Keta."

"I'm not taking it off," Keta said. "I'll just take the window…" The dark haired girl turned and started walking towards the living room, but Kurin went to block her way.

"You're not going anywhere unless you change that hoodie." Keta pinned Kurin with a disbelieving stare. Then burst out laughing.

"You don't want me to go? Fine." She turned and headed towards the staircase. "Have a good day at school." Keta threw a hand over her shoulder, not expecting the vase shattering on the wall in front of her. Looking from the shattered glass the Kurin and back, she chuckled.

"I hope you know what you're getting yourself into." Straightening up out of the crouch she was in, Kurin smirked back at her friend.

"Depends," Grabbing the remote, she hurled it towards Keta, who swiped it in the air midflight, like it didn't almost slam into her face. "Are you going to change?"

Dropping the remote, Keta swiped the invisible dust off of her shoulders and leaned back. "Nah. I'm comfortable."

"You won't be for long…" Sharing a smirk with Keta, she took a deep breath, and lunged.

The two fought, punching, clawing, and biting wildly, totally destroying the living room while Ariku watched. After waiting a second for them to stop, Ariku simply shook her head and left to get some breakfast. The girls stopped fighting when they heard the familiar creaking of the garage being closed. Letting go of one another, the two took a few seconds to catch their breath…then immediately started up another argument.

"Look at what you did!" Kurin poked Keta in the chest repeatedly. "Now they're gone, and Sarutobi-otosan is waiting for us! We're going to have to take the good cars because of your stubbornness."

Huffing Keta pushed her hand away and got up. Dusting off the debris she reached into her pocket. "This is actually all of your fault. If you just let me walk out the door, we wouldn't be late. And you jumped at me first." Tapping some buttons, Keta's eyes flashed with mischief. "Besides… I have a way to get us to school quick and without touching either of our precious cars."

Kurin's eyebrows rose in confusion. "What are you doing?"

Keta's eyes sparkled with something Kurin knew spelled trouble. "Getting us a ride to school." Raising the phone to her ear, she sent a wicked smirk in Kurin's direction.

"Hey Dei-kun…" Kurin immediately snatched the phone away.

"Oi!" Keta scowled. "Do you want a ride to school or not?"

"Not if _he's_ the one driving."

"But you like Dei-kun," Keta sighed. "And you of all people have no business criticizing people's driving."

"Why can't we just take one of the cars?" The pale girl asked, frowning at the phone in her hands. Deidara was still on the line, but neither of the two seemed to care.

"I'm not letting you anywhere near my Lambo," Keta said. "And I don't want to ride in that ridiculous car of yours, especially with the way you drive, crazy."

Kurin glared and ignored how Keta had called her crazy. "What's wrong with my Spyder? It's amazing!"

"It's a Porsche …" Keta shook her head, "and it's purple … who does that?"

"Me," Kurin kept glaring.

"… Exactly." Keta ran a hand through her dark locks in frustration. "Just gimmie back the phone. You should be happy that I'm even going to school."

"Ugh …" Kurin raised the phone to her ear and sighed. "Hello Deidara-san."

"… Are you two finished now?" Replied a tired voice from the other end.

Keta grabbed the phone back, keeping it out of Kurin's grabby hands. "Hey Dei-kun, you mind giving us a ride? Otosan's probably waiting for us with money for the house."

"Yeah why not? Least I could do to make it up to you right?"

"Ha, no. You owe me so much more. How could you leave me in a bar like that you idiot?!" she could hear him shuffling back on the other end.

"Come on, I already apologized. Can you just forget about it?"

"Sure… for twenty dollars."

Deidara sighed on the other end. "If it'll get you out of my hair, whatever. I'll be at your door in ten. See ya."

Smirking in triumph, Keta turned to wave her phone in Kurin's face. "See? Easy."

Shaking her head, Kurin pushed her out of the way. "Whatever Keta. You win this time."

Trailing behind Keta snickered. "When do I lose?"

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

Pulling up to the front of the school, Kurin quickly got out and had to stabilize herself on a nearby tree, laughter shaking her shoulders. "Ahahaha, Kami Dei-san that was amazing. Driving with you is a blast!"

Still in the car, the blond man rolled down his window and smiled. "Then you should hang out with us more, Kurin. You used to love going on adventures with us when you were small."

Kurin straightened, frowning. She remembered those times. Her and Keta had once both loved the Akatsuki, but that was before they knew their friends _were_ the Akatsuki. After they had found out Kurin had stopped talking to them, knowing that friendship with the enemy wasn't a good idea. Apparently Keta couldn't care less, she seemed to become even more attached to the point where she claimed them as her family. It was just like Keta to want something more just because someone said she shouldn't have it.

"Maybe," Kurin shrugged dismissively.

Deidara's smile sort of faded, but came back tenfold when he looked back at Keta and said, "See you tomorrow night?"

"You know it," Keta leaned into the car window and gave him a weird half hug. "Later Dei-kun!"

Kurin shook her head as she watched Keta back up and Deidara speed away, almost hitting three people as he went.

"Hurry up baka." Keta waved, already near the school doors. "Don't you want to see your _boyfriend_?"

_That_ caught the blue-eyed girl's attention. Suddenly, she was opening the door and gesturing for Keta to hurry up. Rolling her eyes, Keta deliberately walked even slower than before, enjoying the frustrated expression decorating Kurin's face.

"Hurry up! Naru's waiting!" Kurin whined, squirming in a way the made her look like she had to pee or something.

Keta scoffed. "Go, weirdo. I'm a big girl, I know where to go."

"Nope, no, I'm not letting you out of my sight. You _cannot _skip today. Or ever again."

Keta rolled her eyes as she passed her, drawing up her hood. "No offense, but you're being delusional if you think I'm never skipping again. I have things to do, people to kill."

Kurin was about to snap at her, but then something caught her eye ad her expression went from being completely annoyed to downright overjoyed. Squealing like an irritating schoolgirl, she ran past Keta and glomped the unsuspecting blond boy while screeching his name.

"Naru!"

Keta blinked and turned, then quickly turned back, looking away in disgust. "Ugh. Love is nasty." Then she walked towards the front office to see if otosan had arrived yet. Behind her she could hear the lovey couple still talking loudly as she shook her head.

"Kurin-chan!" she cringed at hearing the stupid way he said it. "I missed you! What … what are you wearing?"

"The uniform of course. We improved it. You like?"

"No … I love! You look so cute!"

"Aww, you're so sweet!"

Keta kept walking and shuddered hearing the kissy sounds behind her. _Gross_. Speeding up she escaped into the office, leaning back on the door with an exhale of relief. Taking a deep breath, she prepared herself for the scolding she knew she was about to receive.

Approaching the door she was surprised to see Tsunade's door swing open, the mayor of Konoha smiling down at her.

"Nice of you to finally show up Keta." He swept the girl into an embrace and Keta eagerly returned it, laughing.

"Otosan!"

As he pulled away he scanned the office for the second troublemaker, frowning when he realized she was nowhere to be found.

"Where's Kurin?" He asked. "I can't remember a time when you two weren't attached at the hip. Is she alright?"

Keta waved a hand flippantly, "That idiot is busy sucking face with her new boyfriend outside. Those two disgusting lovebirds are driving me insane with all their… _love_ crap. Ugh. Seriously, those two got together yesterday. In a random ass club in the middle of the night. I swear by next week she is going to lose her virginity. Its just terrible …" Keta trailed off, just realizing she was rambling.

Sarutobi was a patient man, but Keta knew, better than anyone what made him tick. Looking up at him, she knew she just set the bomb. "I wasn't supposed to tell you that. Oops."

"Keta …" Sarutobi pinched the bridge of his nose in hopelessness. "Ask Kurin… and her apparent _new friend, _which no one informed me about, to meet me in your grandmother's office… _**now**_**.**"

Nodding furiously Keta scrambled off to get zombies eating each other's faces outside.Having to practically rip their faces from each other, she grabbed their hands and dragged them to the office. Dropping them in front of Sarutobi like a sack of potatoes.

"Here they are." Seeing the look directed to her she added, "No I don't have a secret boyfriend. It's just Kurin."

Kurin giggled from her seat in Naruto's lap. "Unless you count Menma."

Looking at Sarutobi, Kurin didn't see the furious glare Keta directed her way. "Menma is Naru's Edo and is totally in love with her."

"No he is not!" Sarutobi stepped in, knowing one of their fights was about to break out.

"We can discuss that later. Right now, let's talk about all the things I've been hearing from Tsunade. Keta has been skipping school, Kurin, you're way too close to a guy you just met in a club … I don't even want to know why you were there … I've been hearing that you two have been bullying students as well. It's completely unacceptable. What did I tell you two before school started?"

Rolling their eyes, the two recited in perfect synchronization, "No hitting, chewing, biting, clawing, stabbing, shooting, kicking, gouging, slicing, or in any way harming the students. Even if they are annoying."

"What else?"

"No weapons, no skipping, no fighting, no damaging school property, and no harassing the teachers."

Scratching the back of her head, Kurin shared a nervous look with Keta. "But we can explain all those things you think we did ..."

Sarutobi raised an eyebrow. "So you're denying that you did them?"

"No," Kurin continued fidgeting a little. "But I didn't meet Naruto at a bar, we went on a date first. Keta was having some issues before so she was missing class … but we fixed it, kinda. And it wasn't bullying. They all started it."

"Really Otosan, if you thought we would abide by any of those pointless rules you have been proven wrong. Besides, those idiotic people deserved it. They were looking at us weird."

Sighing in exasperation, Sarutobi shook his head. "You two can't be normal for just a few days?"

"Ha, where have you been the past seventeen years?" Keta laughed. "Who needs normality when you can be us?"

Kurin smirked in agreement.

Sarutobi stared between the two, shaking his head.

Naruto was playing with Kurin's purple locks amusedly, ignoring the whole conversation.

"You two…" He sighed. "Never mind. Besides that, how are you two faring with the house?"

"Oh," Kurin crawled across the blond boy's lap to reach her bag on the floor. After digging through, she pulled out a stack of letters – bills – and handed them to him. "Here otosan. I haven't read any of them yet."

Taking the bills he groaned. "More paperwork. Thanks a lot you two." Pointing to the clock he gestured for the girls to get up. "It's time for you to go to lunch." He said spreading his arms, which the two immediately jumped into.

"Bye Otosan." The two recited.

Pulling back he patted their heads. "Goodbye girls. I'll see you soon."

Walking out of the office with Naruto trailing behind, Sarutobi split from the group and left. Sighing Keta turned to see the lovebirds attached once again. "You know what, I think I'm gonna leave too. You creeps are creeping me the hell out." Looking at them again, she groaned. "You aren't even listening to me. Fuck this."

She quickly walked towards the cafeteria, not wanting to be in their presence any longer. The two, unfortunately, caught up to her and began talking about crap she couldn't care less about.

Vaguely she heard Kurin say her name. "Wait, what?" Keta turned.

"I asked," Kurin rolled her eyes. "You remember we have to see Kakashi afterschool, right?"

"Ah, crap."

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

"I … really don't want to be here." Keta sighed.

They were sitting in Kakashi's office again, and the girls weren't pleased to see that he had gotten Icha Icha off of his ceiling. "I told you we should have used super glue," Kurin had said when they saw the peeled spot on the ceiling where the book had been pulled off.

Kakashi smiled his one-eyed crescent moon smile, ignoring Keta's complaint as the two squirmed on the couch, miserably uncomfortable.

"So how are you girls doing now?" He asked brightly. "I heard from your teachers that you've been attending all of your classes, and there haven't been any more complaints from parents, so I'd say you're faring better."

"I guess, whatever." Keta started picking at her nails, bored out of her mind.

Kakashi nodded, turning to look at Kurin.

"Mhmm," she wasn't really paying attention. She was drawing on her arm in sharpie. The right one … the one without all the tattoos on it.

"So nothing to report?" Kakashi waited.

"Nah," Keta said.

"Nope."

"Well that's alright," He just kept smiling. "Because I have an interesting story to tell."

There was a pause.

"So I was taking a walk through Konoha Park the other day, actually the same day we finished our first therapy session," He began, ignoring the utterly unenthusiastic expressions on his patient's faces. "I was just minding my own business, walking along when I saw a bunch of people near the exit yelling about something, so naturally I stopped to see what was going on. Can you guess what I saw?"

The girls stared at him blankly, not responding.

"I saw a whole bunch of masked figures surrounding two girls, two people wearing black, a blond boy, and a black-haired boy. One of the girls got up in the crowd with guns and threatened them, but she wasn't like the others." The silver haired man went on. "She wasn't wearing a mask. I saw her face. Does this scenario sound at all familiar to you?"

Keta kept picking at her nails, but Kurin's eyes widened for a second before she smiled stiffly and said, "Wow that's funny. Maybe they were rehearsing for a play or something. Maybe it was some kind of show."

"I know you're the leaders of Saiken," Kakashi deadpanned. "I figured you were anyways, but now I know for sure."

"So?" Keta finally gave up with her nails and melted into the back of the couch, stretching. "It's not like anyone would believe you unless you took pictures or something. In which case I'd have to incapacitate you and search your apartment for the evidence."

"Incapacit-" Kakashi shook his head. "I didn't take pictures, and I wouldn't tell anyone. I'm just hurt you girls don't trust me enough to tell me something like that. Sarutobi knows, Tsunade probably knows, hell even the Uzumaki boys know, but you couldn't trust me?"

"Because you like to meddle," Kurin said with a sigh. "If you knew you would have eventually gotten into our business and interfered, and we don't want that."

"Meddle? When do I ever meddle?"

"Are you kidding me?" Keta rolled her eyes, laughing. "You're a freaking therapist. It's your job to meddle in other people's business. But no one should be involved with Saiken business except official Saiken members, so now that you know you have to promise not to get mixed up in our crap."

"But-"

"No," Keta's voice was stern.

"What if-"

"No!" Kurin was just annoyed.

"But I-"

"NO, KAKASHI!" Both girls finally screamed, making him shut up.

There was a short silence and Kakashi finally said, "I meddle because I care. That's my way of caring."

"Ahh, man how troublesome." Keta used Shika's line. It was actually a pretty convenient word … no wonder the lazy boy loved it so much. "You don't seem to understand that you _can't be involved_. If you are, you'll probably die. Or make one of us die. Or both."

"Yeah so stay out of it. Don't meddle," Kurin agreed. "Ever."

"Never?"

"No, never." Keta's word was final. "No following us on Akatsuki runs, no calling the police during an ambush, no showing up at random heroic times to try and help us, we can take care of ourselves."

"Fine," Kakashi relented, crossing his arms. "I won't do any of that, I swear. But if you ever need me, promise to call."

"Did he not just hear me say we can take care of ourselves?" Keta asked Kurin.

"Just humor him," Kurin whispered. Then, louder she said, "Sure Kaka-sensei. We will."

"Good," He smiled widely and clapped his hands together. "Now that that's all done, who wants to talk about how they feel?"

"Ugh," Keta fell back into the sofa again. "Not it."

"Well I'm not going either," Kurin crossed her arms.

"Uh huh, I see," Kakashi smirked while pretending to scribble notes down, "and, how does that make you _feel_?"

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

"Well that was fun," Keta said when they were leaving Kakashi's office later that afternoon.

"That was not at all fun." Replied Kurin with a disturbed look on her face. "I would have rather hit myself in the head repeatedly with a sledgehammer while shitting nails and throwing up slug mucus."

"Okay one, that's disgusting, and two, you're a weirdo." The shorter girl said, scoffing.

Kurin shrugged, and they kept walking.

"Chiku said she'd meet us in the parking lot with the car, right?" Keta asked eventually.

"Mhmm," Kurin nodded. "She said-" Kurin suddenly froze, blue eyes going wide and mouth falling open in shock.

"Kurin?" Keta stopped walking and followed her gaze, holding back the laugh bubbling in her throat when she saw what Kurin was gawking at. There was Chiku, they could see her through the clear glass lobby doors of the school, but she wasn't alone.

She was locking lips with Uchiha Sasuke.

Like, _seriously _locking lips. It was unsettling to see. Both girls could only stand and stare in shock as they watched Chiku and the raven haired boy grope each other like they weren't in a public place and finally, after what felt like an eternity, they pulled apart panting and flustered. Sasuke bent down to give the petite girl one last peck on the lips before turning to go.

Chiku smiled funny at him as he went, calling out something to him as he walked. Whatever she said made the usually stoic boy smile as well and wave before running off to his car. When he was gone Chiku was left with that funny smile on her face, looking content and calm for the first time in what seemed like a long time.

Kurin started walking again, shivering uncomfortably at the sight of Chiku _happy_.

_What the fuck? _She thought angrily.

A second later, she swung open the glass doors, startling Chiku out of her happydaze. As soon as Chiku saw it was the nureta mofu, she was scowling, annoyed. "What the fuck? What the FUCK!" Kurin brought her thoughts to life as she shouted.

"What?" Chiku raised a brow. "What's your problem now?"

"What's my- I'll tell you my damn problem, you asshole! What was that just now!?" Kurin was spazzing.

"Oh," Chiku got a sort of lost look on her face that Keta shuddered at because it was a look usually found on Kurin's face, and it made them look so alike … "That. Yeah, I forgot to tell you. I'm dating Uchiha."

Kurin stared, and Keta blinked.

"Wha- you … you never … since when?" The pale girl seemed to be at a loss for words.

Chiku shrugged. "Since a long time ago. That is why I have been leaving the house without telling anyone. I did not want you to know."

"Didn't want me to know!?"

"Yes," Chiku started walking towards the car, usual bored expression back in place. "That is what I just said. Did I stutter, or are you just stupid?"

"Stop insulting me, damnit you know what I mean!" Kurin grabbed her sister's wrist and stopped her from walking away.

Chiku sighed. "I did not think it would last long. We just started talking and he asked me out after a few weeks. It was casual."

"If it was casual you wouldn't have been hiding it," Kurin snapped.

Keta just kept looking back and forth, amusedly watching this scene unfold. Kurin was always overreacting and Chiku was always underreacting, and it was hilarious to her.

"It was something you did not need to know," Chiku said simply. "I wanted to figure out how I felt before I had you blabbing my ear off about what I should do. Not like I would have listened, but still. I was just avoiding complications."

Kurin pulled away, letting her hand fall back to her side. " So I'm just a complication for you, huh?"

Chiku reached for Kurin's hand again, already preparing an apology. "That is not what I-"

"No," Kurin yanked her hands back and looked away, eyes hard and expression cold. "I know _exactly_ what you meant. I'm just a stupid crazy complication, right? Just an annoying little nureta mofu. I'm too loud, I'm too forgetful, and I'm not doing it right. Well sorry Chikushi, sorry I can't be so damn perfect like you. But we're opposites, so I guess that's expected, huh? Always fucking expected."

"Kuri-"

"Whatever," Kurin turned away from both of her friends, and started walking away from the car, in the opposite direction of the house. "It doesn't matter. I'm leaving, just go home."

"Oi, Kurin," Keta called after her, finally deciding to speak. "Pick up some Pocky for me while you're out, will ya?! You never got me any!"

Kurin didn't turn around, simply flipping her the bird while she walked.

"Love you too!" Keta grinned, lazily throwing an arm over Chiku's stiff shoulders. "Wow, can't believe you're dating Little E, nice job. Looks like you really did it Chiku, she's pissed. Wonder where she's going, maybe she'll get lost and raped in the woods. Who knows? This might be the last time we see her. Take a good long look at that middle finger she's giving us. It might be the last time you see it."

Chiku scoffed, pushing the laughing girl off of her and moving towards the car again. "You are just as much of a complication as she is, so try not to look so smug. And your attempts to guilt trip me into apologizing are failing miserably so just stop trying. She will let me apologize when she calms down."

Keta grinned wider, climbing into the passengers seat as Chiku revved the engine. "Me? A complication? Never. I'm the nicest person I know. And if you think Kurin is gonna calm down, you're delusional. That girl is never calm, she just gets more and more crazy."

Chiku said nothing to this, focusing instead on making it out of the parking lot.

She tried not to look, but in the distance she could see the outline of a purple haired girl walking alone, and she had to stop herself from turning the car around to go pick her up.

Kurin would be fine. She'd work it out on her own … eventually.

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

Kurin walked for a long time. At first, she had no idea where she was going, but by the time she figured it out it was too late to turn back.

She only came to this place when things were bad. Why was she here? Things were good now … right? She had thought so. She had all her friends and Naruto and things were going well in Saiken … so why did she feel some ugly pit twisting in her stomach like things were about to take a turn for the worst? She didn't know, but she knew she didn't want to be here. Willing herself to turn back, she tried to stop, but her feet just kept dragging her closer until suddenly she was there, and it felt like she was in another nightmare but she wasn't.

This was real.

R.I.P.

TANAKA MINORI & TANAKA SAKIKO

BELOVED PARENTS AND RESPECTED MEMBERS OF SOCIETY

THEY WILL BE REMEMBERED AND DEARLY MISSED

It was frustrating how upset she was. She didn't even care about what Chiku had said anymore, she was just upset. And it made her more upset, being so upset when things were supposed to be going to well for once. Why couldn't things just go well for once? Even as she thought this, the answer as painfully clear:

There was nothing wrong with her life. It was just her.

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

That week passed by quickly, and Saturday morning was surprisingly quiet. Not much happened, Sasuke coming to sit with them at lunch, Kurin ignoring Chiku, Keta laughing about Kurin ignoring Chiku, and Naruto attempting to cheer up Kurin's 'floppy' mood. Yes, that's what he called it. Floppy.

And she was planning on being floppy all weekend where she could stay in bed all day with no one bothering her.

Until, of course there was a knock at the door. Kurin didn't move. She listened and waited. No one else was getting up either.

There was more persistent knocking.

Eventually Keta called, "KUURRRIIIINNNN. DOOOOORRRR."

And Kurin called back, "NNNNGGGHHHHNNNOOOOOOOOOO. YOU DO IT."

Then on both sides there were loud thumps as the girls rolled out of bed to go yell at whatever idiot with a death wish was knocking on their front door.

Kurin slid open her window and glared down at the front walkway. There were a bunch of people from school gathered there, including Naruto, Menma, Sasuke, Shikamaru, and surprisingly Kakashi.

"Ohayo Kurin!" She couldn't help smiling at her blonde idiot, who made everyone below turn to look at her. Kurin knew she looked stupid in her pajamas and her hair all piled up in a bun, but she was really just too tired to care. It was the first morning in _weeks_ she had been able to sleep, and Kakashi just had to come and ruin it.

"Ohayo Naru..." she said softly, then, "HEY," turning to glare at Kakashi Kurin yelled. "Kakashi, I don't know what you want, but if you need me to be awake for it I suggest you come by at a later time and not this ungodly hour."

She could see his one eyed grin from all the way up on the second floor. "Ohayo Kurin," the masked man replied coolly. "Glad to see you wide awake. Its eleven thirty, by the way, barely even morning."

"Still morning enough for me," Keta's head was now in the window across from Kurin's. She didn't look happy either. "What do you want? No wait, I don't care. Doesn't matter what you came for. You're not coming in here, so leave."

"Ohayo to you too, Keta." This guy refused to be intimidated, which was impressive considering who he was talking to. The two Saiken leaders were bad enough on a regular basis, make them angry and they became a force to be reckoned with. So basically, Kakashi had balls. "I called everyone here for a meeting. They all took the time to be here, so it would be very nice if you let them inside."

"Let them inside?! Don't be ridiculous. Why would I let any one of them into my house, especially you?" Keta shot back, messy bedhead hair falling into her face.

"We won't leave until you do." He said, making Keta's eyebrow twitch. "And it's important."

"I'll give you important you stupid..." Keta trailed off, scowling. Turning around she went back into her room, still muttering nonsense.

"Keta?" Kurin peered out to see what she was doing. After a few more moments of shuffling, everyone heard the familiar 'click' of a gun being loaded. Walking back to stand in the window, Keta held her AK-15 over her shoulders, already aiming at the group outside.

"Good Morning my ass," she muttered to herself.

"Keta!" running back out of sight there was a sudden slam as Keta's door was wrenched open. Kurin pulled Keta away from the windowsill and a stray shot rang out into the still morning. All the group heard was muffled groans and Keta's distinct voice telling Kurin she made a huge mistake. All of a sudden everything was quiet… until Keta threw Kurin out of the window.

Using her Saiken training to her advantage, Kurin quickly caught the edge of the windowsill, looking up to Keta's smug and slightly miffed expression.

"What the hell?!" She screeched. "Why'd you throw me out the window you asshole?!" Keta's amused expression did nothing to improve her mood.

"I've repeatedly warned you not to go into my room." Keta laughed at the horrified expressions on the group's faces, all but Menma's.

"So you threw me out the goddamn window!?"

Keta nodded. "It's not like I didn't tell you."

"Ugh." Shaking her head, Kurin gave up the stupid argument. She was too tired for this. "I'm gonna kick your ass when I wake up . . . Just . . . pull me up."

Looking down, then back to the pajama clad purple haired girl hanging from her window, Keta smirked. "Wouldn't you rather fall into your boyfriends arms?"

Sighing, Kurin looked down to her shell-shocked boyfriend down below. "No, he'd sooner drop me."

About to make another comeback, the look on Kurin's face stopped her dead in her tracks. "Okay, Okay. Come on."

Safely depositing the girl onto the roof, Keta turned back to regard the recovering group still on their doorstep, deftly ignoring the crimson eyes boy staring at her.

"Alright already. We're coming." Slamming her window shut Keta went to help Kurin up, only to find she was already stomping out of her room angrily.

Keta quickly put on her robe before trudging down the stairs to curse out their idiot guardian/counselor/sensei/therapist/meddler/whatever the hell he was.

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

"Explain," Keta snapped impatiently, coffee in her hands.

They were all gathered in the living room, even Oto, Ariku, Chiku, and Shadow. Kakashi had said they should be awake for this, so they were.

"Well," Kakashi said, all eyes on him. "I was thinking you two might be a little shorthanded in Saiken and-"

"NO," Keta said immediately, not even waiting to hear the rest of his sentence. "Kakashi, I know what you're doing, and I will not agree. It's ridiculous."

"But everyone here knows you're the Saiken leaders," Kakashi reasoned. "Why not have some people you can trust on your team?"

"Because this isn't a team," Kurin said angrily from Naruto's lap. It was like that was her new home or something … weird. Almost as weird as Chiku and Sasuke cuddling on the couch. "And we're not playing a game. Someone could die."

"Wait …" Big shocker, Naruto was lost. "What are we even talking about?"

"Kakashi wants us to join Saiken," Shikamaru elaborated unenthusiastically from where he was reclining in their Lazy Boy. (2)

"Eh? Why would they want us in their gang? We don't know how to fight."

Kurin glared at nothing in particular. "It doesn't matter if you can fight or not, either way I wouldn't let you join. What if you got hurt?"

"Yeah, well, shouldn't that be his choice?" Menma asked. Kurin scowled at him, and he rolled his eyes in response. "Oh come on. If he, or any of us decide to join shouldn't you let us? They're our lives."

"I would never let you join," Keta said out of nowhere. Menma gave her a funny look.

"Why not Hoodrat? Someone's got to keep your ass out of trouble."

"My ass is none of your concern," Keta took another sip of coffee, annoyed.

"I beg to differ …" Menma grinned toothily and Keta choked on her coffee. She was about to throw the cup at his head but Ariku snatched it away before she could.

"If you two are done fighting," she said, "maybe we should consider this. I mean, we are a little short handed after that last Sound raid. We weren't expecting the bombs."

"No," Keta grabbed her cup back. "They'd be hopeless in battle anyways."

"So let's train them," Ariku said. Keta glared like she wanted to throw the coffee cup at her too … "Why are you both so objected to this? We need members, here are new members, better yet, members we can trust."

"Do you not get it?" Kurin rubbed her face tiredly. "We don't want anyone to get hurt."

"Well what about you guys?" Sasuke eventually said. "You go out and fight all the time, we don't know if you'll ever be back. How do you think we'd feel if you died? At least if we were there we could do something to help."

"Yeah!" Naruto bobbed his head in agreement. "Teme's right I want to help."

"No!" Both Kurin and Keta yelled angrily.

"I like the idea," Chikushi shrugged. "They are right, it is their choice."

"I think we should vote on it," Oto suggested.

"Okay," Kakashi said, "all in favor raise your hand."

All the hands in the room shot up, even lazy Shikamaru's, except for Kurin's and Keta's.

"You seem to be overruled." Kakashi said.

"But we're the leaders!" Keta said, furious. "You can't overrule us! We're in charge!"

"Actually," Oto said, "Chiku, Ariku, and I are co-leaders, and if we agree on something we can overrule you."

"That's not true!" Kurin pointed at him, almost falling from her perch until Naruto grabbed her waist and steadied her. "One of us has to agree to make a decision like that. It's not just one person joining, it's like …" she was bad at math, "four?"

Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "Is that rule written anywhere?"

"Y-yeah," Kurin nodded hesitantly. "There's a handbook that our parents wrote."

"Get it," Shika commanded.

"I lost it," Keta dismissed hurriedly.

"No," Oto was already leaving the room, "I know where it is."

He returned a second later with a dusty book in his hands. "It says … 'Multiple leaders of Saiken may vote on new members or rules, and if voting results in a tie, or co-leaders object to their verdict, an assembly vote of the members and co-leaders can be held'."

"I object," Ariku said.

"I do too," Oto added.

Chiku shrugged. "I suppose I do as well."

"What!" Keta fumed. "You can't-!"

"Overruled!" Menma smirked.

"I can't believe I'm in a real gang!" Naruto shouted happily, hugging Kurin. "I'm in Saiken!"

"Noooo…" The purple haired girl looked miserable. "You can't … you're not…"

"What the hell!" Keta was pissed. "Now I have to train all you lazy asses!?"

"Are all of you joining?" Ariku asked.

"I am!" The blond boy grinned while trying to comfort his distressed girlfriend.

"Yeah, bro let's do this!" He and Menma low-fived and Keta kicked the couch.

"Me too, I guess," said Sasuke, and Chiku smirked.

"Ahh," Shika scratched the back of his head with a reluctant sigh, "It's troublesome, but Temari will kill me if she finds out I said no."

"Why?" Naruto asked, still patting Kurin's shoulders as she buried her face in his chest dejectedly. "Does she want you to die?"

"Nah," The lazy boy sighed again and got up slowly, stretching. "She says I don't do enough. She wants me to live."

"Ugh." Running her hand through her messy black hair, Keta's head suddenly shot up as if she just remembered something. "Speaking of training…" she trailed off already putting her cup down and bracing herself.

"What are you doing Hoodrat?"

"Minding my own business, asshole." Not in the mood for another argument this early, she ignored him, instead calling, "Sumi!"

Hearing the pounding of paws against the floor, everybody looked towards the hallway, where a giant black shadow was bounding in their direction. Running into the light, Natsumi ignored the group, instead heading straight towards her master.

"Whoa!" Keta was sent sprawling into the wall, Natsumi attacking her face with her tongue. The group sat in shock at the light laughter coming from Keta. Ariku, seeing as this is the first she's heard of the wolf in the house, whispered in Kurin's ear.

"You do know that's not a dog right?" Slightly sniggering Kurin nodded, eyes fixated on the young wolf and her friend. Sumi had grown during her living with them. She was now the size of a regular wolf, and she was still growing.

"When was the last time you saw Keta like this?" Kurin grinned at Ariku's lost look.

"Exactly. It makes her happy. You haven't even seen my pet. Kazuki is amazing."

"Ha! Not as awesome as Natsumi over here." Finally releasing her owner from her tongue attack, Natsumi now laid curled into Keta's side, head in her lap.

"Wow, Hoodrat. Didn't know you could laugh like that." Keta grinned in Menma's direction, still recovering from Natsumi's morning greeting. To say Menma was shocked was an understatement.

"Everyone meet Sumi, Sumi meet your new chew toys." The animal in question barked in joy. Still laughing, Keta got up and headed to the front door. She barely had it open when a silver blob went racing into the surrounding forest.

"Don't kill anybody Sumi!" she called out. Shaking her head, Keta returned to the group, closing her eyes while flopping onto a couch. A slightly _hard_ couch. Finding it to be pretty comfy, she cuddled into it more. "I'm tired, can't we do this some other day? I'm already comfortable."

Hearing the chuckles around her, Keta opened up her right eye partially, to see what the big fuss was all about.

"What?" Keta's eyes widened a fraction, when she scanned the room and didn't see the boy who's recently been plaguing her thoughts. Feeling an arm slide around her waist, her eyes bulged out of their sockets and she choked on a scream.

"Heh, I knew you wanted me." Struggling to turn around and face the voice she loathed and loved at the same time, she found the arm tightening its hold. "Nope, I don't think so, Hoodrat." Shifting his weight so that she was sitting in his lap, Keta fought a blush. "I'm liking this new development." Not having her hoodie, or the ability to move around, she had no choice but to hide her flushed face in Menma's chest. She could feel the vibrations of his laughter, which really wasn't helping her predicament at all.

"I will kill you, Playboy, I'll kill all of you I mean it!" Menma laughed harder at the weak threat. "Let me go you ass!" finding she could move her arm, she elbowed him in the stomach. With an 'umph' Menma's hold weakened allowing her freedom.

Getting up and brushing off the invisible dirt, she glanced around the room and at the sight of the amused expressions, she chuckled darkly and headed to her room. "Don't say I didn't warn you." Not waiting for Kurin to understand just what she was doing, she slammed her room door shut.

Kurin laughed with the group, quickly sobering up when she realized something. Noticing his girlfriend's distress, Naruto finally spoke up.

"What's the matter Kurin?" Looking at him, Naruto was taken aback at her horrified expression.

"Don't you get it? She's preparing … we're going into the training room full of guns … not to mention the ammo's everywhere and anywhere. She knows that place like the back of her hand. Which means unless Menma can defend himself, she can kill him … any of us, really … at will."

The result was priceless. The group burst out in gasps and silent screams of terror. All but Menma, Kurin noted, who was still staring in the direction Keta left. Kurin didn't miss the look of longing adopting his face. Kurin was not the only one who noticed the change. Ariku and Kurin shared a look.

"You sure you want to mess with this?" Ariku asked. The look on Kurin's face spelled trouble. She shot an innocent smile to Ariku.

"All's fair in love and war."

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

Kakashi had left and the group had moved down stairs to the training room. See, the Yoshida and Tanaka household was quite big. Mansionlike. There were two expansive stories aboveground, and under that the girls had the huge training room/ weapons storage facility. And under that were the labs, but nobody ever went down there …

"You're so … stubborn!" Kurin yelled, throwing one of her Katars like a throwing knife and nearly chopping off Keta's neck.

"Shut up!" Keta aimed both of her guns at her friend and pulled the triggers, making a dozen holes in the wall where Kurin had just been standing.

When they fought, no one ever really won. Hard as they tried they just kept beating each other up until they were just too tired to continue. That pattern was continuing on this day …

"Was it really," Kurin rolled behind Keta and threw another knife, "necessary to bring out the guns? We're supposed to …" Keta shot the knife as it flew, making it explode back into the purple haired girl's face. Kurin rolled back away. "Be training the others! Not fighting!"

"Your fault!" Keta blasted the safety mats that Kurin had gone to catch her breath behind. "You wouldn't let me kill that bastard like I wanted to!"

She was referring to Menma, who was, at this point, standing behind the bulletproof glass of the shooting range doors like the rest of the group, observing the two girls.

"Shouldn't we stop them or, like help her?" Naruto asked, watching anxiously.

"Nah," Ariku patted his shoulder, holding him in place. "Kurin's got this. Just let them both calm down. In the mean time … watch and learn. This is them at their best."

"No killing in the house!" Kurin was screaming, and finally just tackled Keta from behind. Keta shot through the ceiling and eventually just threw her gun at Kurin's head. Kurin knocked it away with one of her Katars before angrily holding the sharp metal object up to the dark haired girl's throat. Before she could say she'd won she saw the knife pressed against her side, and smirked down at Keta, who was still out of breath.

"Tie again," Kurin sighed. Or maybe she was just panting … who knows? "Are we done here?"

"Fine," Keta removed the knife, and Kurin got up, dragging Keta with her. When they were both standing they fist bumped and laughed before turning to the group. "You're lucky Playboy, Kurin won't be there to save your ass every time."

Menma strolled out from behind the glass casually, smirking. "Like you'd ever kill me, Hoodrat. You love me way too much for that."

Practically snarling, Keta chucked a stray throwing knife at him, intending to hit him right in the eye. With reflexes she didn't know he had, Menma caught the knife two seconds before it could lodge itself inside his skull. Not even caring how he pulled it off, she pulled him to a side of the room.

"Menma's mine. Pair up and fight to kill." Chuckling, Menma let her pull him to where they needed to go, liking the feeling of her hand in his a little too much.

Keta, on the other hand, was reluctant to let him go. Trying to seem annoyed, she pushed him into the wall.

"You finally ready to admit how much you want me?" Keta 'tched' and got into a fighting stance, waiting for him to do the same.

"Now isn't the time for you to be annoying. We're going to fight, no weapons, no sharp objects, and no playing dirty." Raising his eyebrow at the last one, he was interrupted by Keta's fist narrowly missing his face. Smirking, he grabbed her fist and pushed her away.

"Well if you want to do it that way…" He pulled off his shirt, not missing how Keta's eyes roamed over his body.

Keta could feel his eyes on her, but all she saw was his toned body. Being around Chiku, Kurin, and Oto for so long, she never really cared about guys and how they looked. She never liked anyone. But this…

"Didn't your parents ever tell you it's rude to stare?" Menma's voice cut through her ogling. Not wanting to seem… well… like a girl, she rushed into the fight, not allowing him to comment on the red tinting her cheeks.

Two girls were watching all this with grins taking up half of their face.

"This is going even better than I planned. We don't even have to do anything."

Kurin shook her head. "Knowing Keta we'll have to do a lot more if we want this to work. Naru!" Turning, the boy in question paused his fight with Shikamaru to chat with his girlfriend.

"Kurin?" he was interrupted by Kurin finger on his lips.

"Now isn't the time for chit-chat, Naru. I have a mission for you…" trailing off she whispered his instructions in his ear. With the occasional nod of his head and a smile or two, the plan was set in motion.

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

"You're not punching hard enough, Naru," Kurin said as she tried … and failed … to pretend spar with her boyfriend.

"Because I don't wanna hurt you Kurin," The blond boy whined.

"You're not going to hurt me," She assured, kicking out her leg to try and trip him again. This time he dodged it. "Good," Kurin smiled. "You're a slow learner, but when you do get it you execute perfectly."

Naruto wasn't really paying attention to her praise, he was too busy worriedly glancing at Keta and his brother who were attaching each other like rabid animals.

"Are you sure this is going to work?" He asked, for what was probably the hundredth time.

"Yes," Kurin jumped to the right when he fake-punched at her, bringing them closer to the other sparring pair. "They won't even notice we're there. And Naru … can't you hit just a little harder? I feel like I'm fighting with the air."

"I could punch you harder," Naruto admitted. "But I won't."

Kurin sighed, aiming another fake punch to his side. Curse her boyfriend and his chivalry complex. It was going to get him in a lot of trouble someday …

"Okay," Kurin brought her thoughts back to the present when they had moved close enough to the Bakemono and Keta. (3) The two were so wrapped up in their smack talking and punching, they hardly noticed when Naruto and Kurin got close. "On three, one … two … three!"

Kurin pretended to dodge another one of Naru's fake punches by diving to the side and jutting out her leg, which just so happened to end up right in front of Keta's feet. Naruto did the same to Menma, causing them both to trip forward and fall into each other in a very … precarious way.

Kurin and Naruto hurried away, hoping the two furious teens wouldn't notice what they'd done. So far, neither of them had. Keta was too busy nearly hyperventilating because Menma was on top of her, and she was on the ground, arms trapped under his body.

Menma was too busy frantically trying to scramble away from the red-faced girl, knowing what was about to happen …

"You …" Keta's voice was like acid wrapped in a promise of death, "you did that on purpose you stupid _bastard_!"

Menma was still sort of on top of her when he tried to laugh. "I didn't, honest. I swear it was an accid-"

Keta had cut him off with a square punch to the jaw.

The dark haired boy stumbled back, falling onto his ass as he clutched his bruising face. "You punched me in the face! What the fuck!?"

"You were groping my ass!"

"Okay, that wasn't really an accident, but the falling was! And you punched me …" He trailed off, glaring at the infuriated girl.

"So you admit that you- ugh!"

Everyone in the room froze to watch in horror as Menma punched Keta in the face. Kurin, who had been in the middle of laughing her ass off suddenly stopped to watch the two fight.

She and the rest of the group cocked their heads when the pair simultaneously grunted and tackled each other to the ground, landing in another indecent position.

Naruto leaned over to whisper in Kurin's ear. "Is that even fighting?"

She shook her head and giggled a little, "They're fighting . . . Just in a different way."

The pair _was _fighting… if you count making out fighting. Keta had somehow fallen into Menma's lap, straddling him, with Menma's arms wrapped tightly around her waist. Their faces were just about molded together. They were so engrossed in their 'activity' they didn't notice when the group inched out of the room to give them space.

Following the group out, Ariku gave Kurin a look. "Was that really necessary? You know she's going to kill you when it's all over, right?"

Kurin shrugged and smirked. "Nah, she loves me too much."

X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X

**(1) Iguso means hurry up.**

**(2) Hahahahahahahahahah … ahah … hah … I have humor. Lazy boy sitting in the Lazy boy. Get it? Heh.**

**(3) Bakemono means monster. I call Menma that for obvious reasons.**

**Keta: You're an idiot you know that?**

**Kurin: That's not nice, you grump.**

**Keta: Shut up. I am not grumpy. But you are insane.**

**Kurin: I am insane. And I revel in its indecency. But this is not about me, we are talking about you. And you are grumpy. Very very grumpy.**

**Keta:I am not grumpy.**

**Kurin: You are grumpy, and I don't care if you say you're not because you are. I say so. So you are. **

**Keta: I'm not in the mood to argue about this.**

**Kurin: Good. I've won.**

**Keta: Do you know how annoying you are?**

**Kurin: REVIEW!**

**Keta: Last words go to me. **


End file.
